by Christine | Sep 25, 2014 | Conservatee, Conservator, Conservatorships, Estate Plan, Estate Planning, Inheritance, Living Trust, Living Will, Long Term Care, Long Term Care Insurance, Medi-Cal Long Term Care, Medicaid, Medical Directives, Probate, Trusts, Wills |
The most important thing for any patient with a long-term illness is to focus on his overall health and mental outlook. Having financial plans in place allows a patient to set other worries aside. How do you plan for future illnesses or tragedies? The "what...
by Christine | Jul 8, 2014 | Elder Law, Medical Directives |
“What about the wife?” the social worker asked. How could we have missed this most basic and vital piece of information? It’s easier than you might think. The sister didn’t get along with the wife and apparently wasn’t moved to tell us of her existence. The social...
by Christine | Mar 5, 2014 | Elder Care, Elder Law, End of Life Decisions, Medical Directives |
[Pacemakers] prolong lives, but “all those people will face decisions down the road,” Dr. Mueller said. “’Do I keep it going? Do I turn it off?’” Physicians have similar questions, including what kinds of patients confront these choices and who usually winds up making...
by Christine | Jan 24, 2014 | Elder Law, Estate Planning, Medical Directives |
"It seems like there seems to continue to be confusion about what it means to die using neurologic criteria," said Cynda Hylton Rushton, professor of clinical ethics at Johns Hopkins University. Two recent medical cases are making headlines over the often...
by Christine | Dec 16, 2013 | Dementia, Elder Law, Medical Directives |
Often, proxies are confused about how “do not hospitalize” orders work. Several proxies believed, mistakenly, that a such an order was equivalent to a request to withhold medical intervention altogether. For elderly loved ones in nursing homes, there is a very...
by Christine | Aug 29, 2013 | Estate Planning, Medical Directives |
With back-to-school season upon us, it’s an issue that’s timely to consider. Once your children turn 18, you are no longer entitled to see their medical records and make decisions about their medical treatment—unless they take a few basic estate-planning steps first....