A nursing home attorney can help you!
Choosing a Nursing Home
Making the decision to have a loved one enter a nursing home is a traumatic, gut-wrenching choice. Choosing a nursing home is a difficult and confusing decision. Review circumstances with your physician or your loved one's physician, the nursing home state ombudsman, and the state survey and certification office.
When you visit the facility, do not just speak with the administrator. Talk with staff, patients, and family members of patients. Consult an experienced elder law attorney if payment options for the facility are a question.
If you can involve your loved one, consult with them also. Many times the decision is hurried, and will depend upon availability of open beds. A little advance planning, when it is clear that a nursing home is in the future, can save a great deal of anxiety for all involved.
Nursing Home Neglect
In situations where there has been a specific incident involving a serious injury or abuse, the nursing home resident themselves or their family should seek out the advice of a nursing home attorney for representation.
The majority of nursing home neglect cases are far more subtle and many people are hesitant to seek out an attorney. The best rule of thumb is to trust your instinct. If something doesn't seem right - it's probably not. Because most cases of nursing home neglect involve ongoing mistreatment, it is important to contact an attorney when you begin to suspect the nursing home may be treating your loved one improperly.
Pay attention to the physical signs. Most elderly are hesitant to report situations involving nursing home abuse or neglect and may be scared to confront the people responsible for providing their care. Patterns of injury should not be tolerated. Repeated falls, bruising, cuts or infections deserve to be investigated as they are easily preventable situations that are indicative of staffing problems at a facility.
The sooner an attorney is contacted, the sooner an investigation can be started to determine what may have caused the injury or abuse. Without the consult of an elder attorney well versed in what damages an injured person is entitled to receive, the medical facility will use its uneven bargaining position in its favor.
If you or a loved one suspect the nursing home, long-term care facility, home nurse or hospital may have caused or contributed to an injury or situation involving abuse, why not speak to a nursing home attorney who has your interests in mind without any charge to you? Contact Nursing Home Lawyer Adam Tobin for a free consultation.
Nursing Home Quality Rating Tool
My spouse has just entered a nursing home and I didn't plan ahead. Is it too late to avoid now paying the $9,000.00 nursing home bill each month?
Do not panic. There is still time to plan. It is imperative we take advantage and maximize the protections available to you as the spouse remaining at home also known as the community spouse. Mr. Tobin will help analyze and implement the current strategies available, including but not limited, to:
- Conversion of non-exempt assets into exempt assets;
- Transferring assets;
- Annuitization of Assets;
- Purchasing a life estate for either spouse;
- Utilizing a Medicaid-sheltered annuity;
- Care provider contracts.
Often Attorney Tobin utilizes a combination of the above mentioned strategies in developing a plan to achieve the maximum retention of the client's assets.
In many circumstances it is also necessary for Attorney Tobin to modify the wills, life insurance contracts, and title to real estate in order to allow the sick spouse to be cared for if the healthy spouse predeceases the sick spouse.
Liens on Homes
Although the individual's home may be an exempt asset, Massachusetts under many circumstances, will place a lien on the home to collect for the Medicaid benefits received by the individual. Mr. Tobin instructs clients and implements strategies on the various ways that the home can be protected from this lien.
Nursing Home Attorney Tobin offers prospective clients a free, no obligation conference, to determine the vulnerability a Long Term Care illness may have on their own personal situation. Click here to schedule a conference.
