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Greetings!
Welcome to 2012!! As promised, here are my suggestions for choosing a nursing home. As some of you know, I used to own/operate six award winning nursing homes in Southern New Hampshire. I sincerely hope that you enjoy these articles and that they are of use to you.Please do not hesitate to contact me for more information on any of these topics or any questions you may have on estate planning. Also, check out my new web site: Sowerby Elder Law
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How to Choose a Nursing Home.
Choosing a nursing home for a loved one is about as much fun as a root canal. The process usually starts late in the day, maybe on a Friday, when you get a call from the hospital telling you that your parent/grandparent is going to be discharged over the weekend. "Which nursing home do you want?" A mad dash to the phone book or Google ensues. How can you tell which ones are good? The newspapers would have you believe that they are all terrible. First stop may be the web site the federal government provides: www.medicare.gov
This site purports to provide the information you will need to make a rational choice and even rates nursing homes on a "Five Star" basis- five stars equals good and one star not so much. After a little digging, however, you are probably totally confused. The site doesn't really rate the quality of nursing homes More at my blog click here |
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 -HIPAA
What on Earth does this have to do with Elder Law or Estate Planning, you ask? I am glad you asked.
This Federal statute was primarily passed to ensure that people changing jobs would be able to get health insurance even if they had a pre-existing condition. However, buried in the legislation were many provisions having to do with the privacy of medical information- termed PHI or Personal Health Information. I am sure you have seen or heard references to HIPAA every time you have visited a physician's office or other health provider. The main effect of HIPAA is to secure your PHI and to only release it with your permission and only to those you specify. Thus, even your husband, wife or partner cannot see your medical records without being designated your Agent under HIPAA. A routine part of good estate planning is a HIPAA Agent designation. You may have a Power of Attorney for Healthcare but what good is it if your designated healthcare attorney cannot access your medical records to find out if you are incapacitated? What if you wish your spouse to be your decision-maker if you are incapacitated but you also wish to allow your children to be able to talk with the doctors about your care? The answer is the HIPAA Agent designation. I include this in nearly all of my estate planning documents- Powers of Attorney, Trusts, Healthcare Powers of Attorney- and I also include a free-standing HIPAA designation. The free-standing designation is a very simple form, only two pages, and can include people other than your Agents in the main documents. It allows for a simple way to add people that you wish to be able to be involved in your care but not be the actual decision makers. The Designation also allows your designated Agents to know about your care without having any ability or responsibility to make decisions and can be used while you still are making your own decisions. Recommendation: Take a look at your various estate planning documents; is HIPAA mentioned? If not, perhaps you should have all of your plan reviewed!
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New Blog
There are some topics that simply require more space than a newsletter can provide- and that may appeal to different audiences. I have started to blog on some topics such as Choosing a Nursing Home above. Future topics may include the new Limited Liability law currently in the legislature. if you are interested, click More in the article above or Dwight's Blog in the introduction. Please feel free to comment on the Blog site. |
About Our Law Firm
Drescher & Dokmo, PA is a small law firm in Milford, NH with two attorneys.
William "Bill" Drescher, Esq. concentrates almost exclusively on municipal law and is widely regarded as one of the most experienced New Hampshire lawyers in this field. Bill has practiced in New Hampshire for nearly forty years. For much of that time, Cynthia Dokmo was associated with the firm. Cynthia retired in 2007. The firm now consists of Bill Drescher and Dwight Sowerby. Dwight practices in the areas of Elder Law, Estate Planning, Small business Law and Municipal Law.
Drescher & Dokmo, PA
21 Emerson Road
Milford, NH 03055
603-673-9400
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Estate Plans should be reviewed every five years or so or when there is either a change in your family, a major change in the law or a change in your finances. The law has been changing almost daily and we all know what has been happening to our finances. A review should occur whether the change has been for the better or worse. There is never a charge for the initial evaluation.
I would be delighted to speak with you. Just call me or my assistant, Jean Thibodeau to make an appointment. 603-673-9400
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