Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Paying price for helping son

Excerpt from Star Tribune: (click for entire article)

Angeline Ellis of Crystal was trying to be a helpful mom four years ago when she lent her son $17,000 to tide him over a financial tight spot. So far, he's repaid $12,250.

Now, beset by dementia, severe arthritis and heart disease at age 83, Ellis needs long-term care.

As a result, she finds herself at the center of a lawsuit challenging a state rule designed to discourage people from giving an early inheritance to their children and then getting taxpayer help to pay for their care through Medicaid.

Philadelphia Basement Case: Bill Could Prevent Repeat Of Case Involving Social Security Abuse

Excerpt from The Huffington Post: (click for entire article)

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey unveiled legislation Monday that he said would close a loophole that may have allowed a woman accused of locking mentally disabled people in a squalid basement and cashing their government assistance checks to evade capture for years.

The Pennsylvania Democrat's bill would allow the Social Security Administration access to existing government databases that identify violent criminals ineligible to serve as representative payees, those who cash someone else's check. It would also increase the number of SSA fraud investigators so anyone applying to be a representative payee would undergo a criminal background check.

Audio: Alan Rickman on Snape and More!

Excerpt from Harry Potter's Page: (click for entire article)

Alan Rickman was interviewed today on National Public Radio’s (NPR) Talk of the Nation about his current project, Seminar, which is currently on Broadway.  He also had quite a bit to say about Snape, playing villains, typecasting, and acting in general.

Bird Flu: Scientists Develop New Strain Of H5N1, Avian Influenza, That Could Kill Millions

Patti's Comments:  I will be having a nightmare about this I am sure.

Excerpt from The Huffington Post: (click for entire article)

It sounds like the setup for a Hollywood thriller: scientists in a lab create a virus as contagious as the flu that kills half of those infected. We're safe as long as the virus remains locked up, but if it escapes or gets into the hands of bioterrorists, it has the potential to become a pandemic and kill millions around the world.

But this isn't the latest summer blockbuster. According to New Scientist magazine, researchers in the Netherlands studying H5N1 -- commonly referred to as the bird flu or avian influenza -- have created a strain of the virus that's easily passed between mammals, and it's just as lethal as the original virus.

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the H5N1 virus has infected more than 500 people in more than a dozen countries and is known to kill around 60 percent of those that become infected.

Deaf Man Accuses Sheriff's Department Of Withholding Sign-Language Interpreter

Excerpt from Planet of the Blind: (click for entire article)

When Adams County sheriff's deputies knocked down the motel-room door of a deaf couple, slammed the man to the ground and locked him in jail for 25 days without providing a sign-language interpreter, they violated the Americans With Disabilities Act, a federal lawsuit says.

Lawyers for Timothy Siaki claim the man was not provided an interpreter until he went to court on domestic assault charges last year. Siaki eventually was cleared of the charges, said Kevin Williams, an attorney who filed the suit on behalf of Siaki and his fiancee, Kimberlee Moore.

Agency for Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) Medicaid Waiver Program Erred in Considering Only Costs of Services Listed in Rule When Determining Placement (Fla. App.)

Newsome is a developmentally disabled adult receiving services through the HCBS Medicaid Waiver Program, implemented by the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD). Her services cost approximately $72,000 per year. The waiver program assigns eligible individuals to one of four statutorily defined tiers based on the nature and extent of the individual’s service needs and is intended to balance the delivery of services to eligible individuals with the availability of appropriated funds.

APD assigned Newsome to Tier Three, which has a $35,000 expenditure limit, because it determined her needs could be met by that tier. Tier One, with no cost limit, was limited to individuals who have intensive medical or adaptive service needs that cannot be met in the lower tiers. In reasoning that Newsome’s service needs could be met in Tier Three, APD did not consider any services in her cost plan other than the amounts for personal care assistance, and waiver support coordination which was less than the Tier Three expenditure. APD did not consider the costs of her other services because they were not listed in rule 65G-4.0027(4), defining Tier One criteria.

Newsome appealed the assignment. The appellate court stated that APD was wrong and that 65G-4.0027(4) did not limit consideration of the client’s needs to only the services listed in the rule. The listed services were to be used as the primary basis for tier assignment, not the only ones. APD’s final order was reversed.

Newsome v. Agency for Persons with Disabilities, 2011 Fla. App. LEXIS 18596 (November 22, 2011)

Full Case.

A Time to Recognize America’s Caregivers

Excerpt from Wiser: (click for entire article)

November is National Caregivers Month, a month dedicated to thanking, educating and supporting informal, unpaid caregivers throughout America. According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, 65.7 million people, or 29% of the U.S. adult population, are acting as caregivers to family and friends who are ill, disabled or aged. The value of these unpaid caregiving services was estimated at $450 billion a year in 2009.  The New York Times reported last month that middle-income Americans are especially struggling to care for their aging family members. Their annual incomes do not allow them the discretionary income to afford around-the-clock, nursing home care, but their incomes are too high to qualify them for assistance from Medicaid. Additionally, Medicare stops paying for nursing home bills after 100 days.

Mark Twain and Constitutional Law

Excerpt from Constitutional Law Prof Blog: (click for entire article)

It's the 176th anniversary of the birth of Mark Twain, an anniversary that while not a usual celebratory number (100, 150, or even 175) has been attracting some attention.  

Mark Twain has also received a bit of attention from the United States Supreme Court in constitutional law cases.

Perhaps most obviously the pseudonymous Mark Twain appears in the context of the First Amendment right to be anonymous.  In McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Committee (1995), the Court held unconstitutional a state statute prohibited the distribution of campaign literature that does not contain the name and address of the person or campaign official issuing the literature.  Ms. McIntyre had distributed leaflets from “CONCERNED PARENTS AND TAX PAYERS” opposing a proposed school tax levy and was fined.  The Court's opinion by Justice Stevens noted that "Great works of literature have frequently been produced by authors writing under assumed names."  The supporting footnote first lists "Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)" as an American who first comes to mind, followed by O. Henry (William Sydney Porter), and expanded with reference to writers such as Voltaire, and even making a brief foray into the status of Shakespeare, a controversy now appearing in theatres.

High Arsenic & Lead Levels In Juice: What Parents Should Do About It

Excerpt from The Consumerist: (click for entire article)

After our wise older siblings at Consumer Reports published an investigation into apple and grape juice, finding high levels of arsenic and lead levels in a concerning percentage of samples, parents should know what actions to take to keep their children healthy.

Kids drink a lot of juice, a Consumer Reports poll found — a full 35% drink more than pediatricians advise. Consumer Reports sets out some guidelines to help parents limit juice consumption.

AMT Calculator

Excerpt from TaxProf Blog: (click for entire article)

Kiplinger provides this on-line AMT Calculator:

    The Alternative Minimum Tax is a parallel system developed more than 40 years ago by Congress to make sure the wealthy paid at least some income tax.