2004 Articles

Casenote-The Toth case and its significance for the elder abuse program By Lee Beneze October 2004 The Toth decision was handed down by the Illinois Appellate Court in March, 2004.

Clarifications and corrections October 2004 Corrections.

Collection activity for a nursing home may be a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act By Naomi H. Schuster March 2004 During the past year I represented a client who found himself as a Defendant in an action filed by a nursing home in the Chicagoland area for nonpayment on a personal guarantee for his deceased sister's nursing home expense.

Coping with declining health and finances: Ideas, thoughts, and suggestions for your Powers of Attorney By Paul A. Meints March 2004 The following items are some thoughts and suggestions, including sample drafting, for keeping your documents current.

Correction March 2004 In the book review of Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan by John Voorn (Vol. 9 No. 8, December 2003), a sentence was inserted by the editors saying that the Governor of Florida had signed a bill to reinsert a feeding tube into Terry Schiavo after a federal court had ordered the tube removed. It was a state probate judge that issued the order.

Dealing with life insurance in Medicaid eligibility planning By Wesley J. Coulson June 2004 Because the Illinois Medicaid eligibility manual (PM 07-02-07) severely limits ownership of life insurance policies by a prospective applicant for Medicaid long-term care benefits, it is often necessary to divest ownership of such policies.

Dementia patients and the criminal justice system By John W. Foltz March 2004 What happens when the police respond to a report of domestic battery in which the perpetrator may have dementia?

The elder boom: Are you ready? By Daniel M. Moore March 2004 The python is about to have another case of indigestion. The front end of the Boomer generation, likened by some to a pig in a long, extended python of flat birth rates, is about to enter its 'elderly' phase.

Have an answer? You do now By Marc R. Miller October 2004 Over time, the author has compiled his own resource "go-to" list. It has helped him be of service to the client at little or no cost.

The Illinois Long-Term Care Ombudsman: Advocating for residents By Lee Beneze October 2004 The Illinois Long Term Care Ombudsman Program advocates for senior residents of long-term care facilities in the state of Illinois.

Keeping Current: IDPA publishes proposed changes to regulations October 2004 IDPA publishes proposed changes to regulations.

Making law offices elder-friendly: Advice from the field March 2004 In a recent e-mail exchange, several members of the ABA's Law and Aging Network, including Legal Services Developers and other elder lawyers, offered suggestions to make law offices more accessible and welcoming to older persons.

Medicaid application tips By Mark Haney June 2004 A recent encounter with a 28-year veteran DHS Intake Worker caused me to realize that it pays to know the rules when you or your assistant attends a Medicaid application interview.

Medical malpractice certificates not required in litigation based on the Health Care Surrogate Act By Lee Beneze March 2004 Legislation enacted in 1985 included a requirement that a civil complaint sounding in medical malpractice must be accompanied by a certificate of merit signed by a medical physician.

Message from the chair By Sherri Rudy October 2004 (Notice to librarians: The following issues were published in Volume 9 of this newsletter during the fiscal year ending June 30, 2004: September, No. 1; December, No. 2; March, No. 3; June, No. 4).

Message from the Chair By John F. Erbes June 2004 By the time you are reading this message, another bar year will be expiring or have come and gone and a new year will have started under the capable leadership of the Elder Law Section's next Chair-Sherri Rudy.

Message from the Chair By John F. Erbes March 2004 Issue No. 3 of the Elder Law newsletter indicates that we are more than halfway through another bar year.

New federal prescription drug discount programs By Marc R. Miller March 2004 The President recently signed into law the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003.

Phishing: New Internet scam for seniors (and others) to beware March 2004 An Internet scam that has recently been reported demonstrates the ingenuity of con artists. As people get more sophisticated about using the Internet and know not to give out personal information to an unfamiliar site or e-mail correspondent, scammers have come up with a more sophisticated way to get that information.

Prescription drug price relief-Now By Walter J. Zukowski & James S. Peters March 2004 While American seniors await the full impact implementation of the new prescription drug benefit to Medicare, many Illinois residents can already enjoy a variety of means of reducing prescription drug costs.

A primer on caregiver stress for the elder law practitioner By Charles LeFebvre June 2004 Most practitioners realize that the elder law practice is not so much assisting clients and their families with the legal affairs associated with aging-the typical definition.

Scamming the scammers October 2004 Not to be outdone by Nigeria, Canada has come up with its own scam on older persons.

Status of grandparent visitation in Illinois following Wickham By Daniel C. Hawkins June 2004 Prior to 2002, Illinois grandparents had statutory rights to visitation. 750 ILCS 5/607 (b) et seq.

Stops along the Information Superhighway - The ABA Commission on Law and Aging October 2004 The Web site of the ABA Commission on Law and Aging (www.abanet.org/elderly) is worth visiting every so often.

Terri’s Law: Lessons learned, hard lessons avoided By William L. Cleaver June 2004 The tragic legal odyssey of Terri Schiavo continues. Ms. Schiavo is the 40-year-old woman in Florida who has been in a persistent vegetative state for 10 years.

To the editors June 2004 While Paul A. Meints' article in the March 2004 Elder Law newsletter presents some interesting possible customizations of both the health care and property powers of attorney, the suggestions raised three issues in my mind.

Visitability-A welcome idea in home design October 2004 When people think of accessibility aspects of home design-such as wheelchair ramps and siderails in the bathroom, they usually think of those features as either being present in a home or facility designed for persons with physical disabilities or having to be installed in a home of one who recently became disabled.

What can Kansas teach us? Casenote-Beware of spousal marital rights of election By Greg Johnson June 2004 Testamentary trust principal can easily be considered an available asset to a Medicaid applicant if the Medicaid applicant is considered to have access to the principal because of a failure to elect a marital share.