ElderLaw News November 2010
November 2010
- Reviewing Your Medicare Plan Is More Important Than Ever This Year
- Average Cost of a Nursing Home Room Tops $83,000 a Year
- Trial and Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights.
- Avoid Disagreements Between Your Power of Attorney Holder and Health Care Proxy
- Some Seniors Getting Sticker Shock When Moving From Hospital to Nursing Home
Clients, Colleagues and Friends:
Just a reminder: The feature film “You Are Here” is showing at the Crowne Plaza in Upper on November 17 at 7:00 PM. You can contact our office at 888-402-5680 if you would like to reserve a seat.
Reviewing Your Medicare Plan Is More Important Than Ever This Year
Medicare open enrollment is coming! During the annual open enrollment period, which runs from November 15 to December 31, you may switch Medicare drug or health care plans. While you should review your coverage every year, this year it is particularly important because of changes brought on by the new health care law.
Average Cost of a Nursing Home Room Tops $83,000 a Year
Nursing home and assisted living rates rose significantly from 2009 to 2010, according to the 2010 MetLife Market Survey of Long-Term Care Costs. The average price of a private room in a nursing home increased 4.6 percent to $83,585 a year or $229 a day, while assisted living facility costs climbed 5.2 percent on average to $39,516 a year or $3,293 a month.
Trial and Heirs: Famous Fortune Fights. 
Can we learn anything about estate planning from Jimi Hendrix, Princess Di, and Sonny Bono? Yes! This entertaining book uses famous cases to illustrate the principles of sound estate planning.
Avoid Disagreements Between Your Power of Attorney Holder and Health Care Proxy
A durable power of attorney and a health care proxy are two crucial estate planning documents. Both allow other people to make decisions for you in the event you are incapacitated. Because the individuals chosen will have to coordinate your care, if you can’t appoint the same person to do both jobs it is important to pick two people who will get along.
Some Seniors Getting Sticker Shock When Moving From Hospital to Nursing Home
A growing number of Medicare beneficiaries are spending days in the hospital before being transferred to a nursing home, only to find that Medicare won’t pay for the first 20 days of their nursing home stay, as it typically would. The reason, the beneficiaries later learn, is that they had never actually been “admitted” to the hospital, but were only under “observation.”