A huge change recently occurred in how things are now being processed by the VA. Now they no longer withhold monies on approved claims that require a Fiduciary be appointed.  In the past, no money was being released until the Fiduciary process was completed.  This left families with approved claims but no access to the much needed monthly income from the pension to help pay for care.  This is singularly one of the best things the VA could have possibly done to truly assist veterans and their families. The Fiduciary process is still in place on those claims where the applicant has been declared incompetent to manage their own affairs.  Due to the limited number of VA Field Agents, these appointments can take months to schedule, but this change in policy will make the wait a little easier to tolerate.

Below are some additional rules you may not know that can help you or your spouse more easily qualify for and/or continue receiving your veteran’s benefits.

The New Legislative Rule

Currently, if you can prove that you medically and financially should have received an award up to 12 months before you filed, the VA may (might, maybe, could) give you the award for the 12  prior months. The letters veterans receive on your benefits eligibility started changing a few months ago, so read all the correspondence relating to your approval application carefully.  You would need a physician’s evaluation that states as of ABC month, the applicant needed XYZ help.  If you do qualify for the additional back payments this is definitely worth exploring!

What happens if you are a veteran with a sick spouse?

This question comes up all the time in our practice. While the veteran has to qualify for a spouse to benefit (unless they are widowed), what many do not realize is that if the medical costs of the spouse depletes their combined monthly income, the veteran is entitled to file as a “veteran with a sick spouse” and would be eligible for $1290 a month.  That extra cash could be just enough to fill the gap and keep you afloat. This is a common gap that many couples do not even know they could qualify for.

Providing Care at Home

Let’s say you are the veteran (or surviving spouse) and you are being cared for in a home by a family member or other non-licensed healthcare individual, you are required to call the primary doctor or nurse and give monthly updates as to how the veteran or widow is doing.  This is really just you checking in but it is a crucial step for deducting the caregiver’s cost.  Again this is if the care is being provided by a non-licensed healthcare individual. Many people are unaware of this requirement, and if you have not done this in the past, you need to start doing this to ensure there are no issues when the yearly EVR (Eligibility Verification Report) comes due. 

Contact our Veterans Benefits Specialist Sean McGuire today to learn more about getting all the VA benefits you are owed. Call (562) 920-6100 to find out more today.

Resources for Adult Care-providing Children of Senior

Elder Law encompasses many different fields of law which is important to note because the legal problems that affect the elderly are continuously growing in number. Current laws and regulations are also becoming more complex and therefore more challenging for you the adult child of the senior. Attorneys that specialize in dealing with the elderly must have a broad understanding of the laws that impact a given situation to avoid future problems for the senior and their heirs.

Areas of Elder Law Include:

• Preservation/transfer of assets seeking to avoid spousal impoverishment when a spouse enters a nursing home
• Medicaid
• Medicare claims and appeals
• Social security and disability claims and appeals
• Supplemental and long term health insurance issues.
• Disability planning, including use of durable powers of attorney, living trusts, “living wills,” for financial management and health care decisions, and other means of delegating management and decision-making to another in case of incompetency or incapacity.
• Conservatorships and guardianships
• Estate planning, including planning for the management of one’s estate during life and its disposition on death through the use of trusts, wills and other planning documents
• Probate
• Administration and management of trusts and estates
• Long-term care placements in nursing home and life care communities
• Nursing home issues including questions of patients’ rights and nursing home quality
• Elder abuse and fraud recovery cases
• Housing issues, including discrimination and home equity conversions
• Age discrimination in employment
• Retirement, including public and private retirement benefits, survivor benefits and pension benefits
• Health law
• Mental health law

As with any specialty attorney, most Elder Law attorneys do not specialize in every one of these areas. So when an attorney says he/she practices Elder Law, find out which of these matters he/she handles and has years of expertise doing. Remember to hire the attorney who regularly handles matters in the area of concern in your particular case. He/she should also know enough about the other fields related to your issue to question whether the action being taken might be affected by laws in any of the other areas of law on the list. For example, if you are going to rewrite your estate plan and your spouse is ill, the estate planner needs to know enough about Medi-Cal to know whether it is an issue with regard to your spouse’s inheritance and legal rights after the spouses passing.

Attorneys who are members of NAELA, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, are focused on continual education in the many areas that elder law touches; so you should ask your elder law attorney if they are affiliated with NAELA. Attorneys who primarily work with the elderly bring more to their practice than an expertise in the appropriate area of law. They bring a long standing knowledge of senior’s needs and that allows them and their staff to empathize with some of the challenging physical and mental difficulties that often accompany the aging process. Any high quality elder law attorney will understand the afflictions of the aged and can therefore offer advice that can more easily determine the best course of action for the client. They are more aware of real life problems, health and otherwise, that tend to overtake us as we age. Elder law attorneys are also usually tied into a system of social workers, psychologists, caregivers and other elder care professionals who may be of assistance to you. All of these things will hopefully make you more comfortable when dealing with them and ease your way as you try to resolve your legal problem.