Elder Law Commons^™

Selling Hospice, Sam F. Halabi

Faculty Publications

Americans are increasingly turning to hospice services to provide them with medical care, pain management, and emotional support at the end of life. The increase in the rates of hospice utilization is explained by a number of factors including a “hospice movement” dating to the 1970s which emphasized hospice as a tool to promote dignity for the terminally ill; coverage of hospice services by Medicare beginning in 1983; and, the market for hospice services provision, sustained almost entirely by governmental reimbursement. On the one hand, the growing acceptance of hospice may be seen as a sign of trends giving substance …

Putting Retirement At Risk: Has Financial Risk Exposure Grown More Quickly For Older Households Than Younger Ones?, Christian Weller, Sara Bernardo

Gerontology Institute Publications

Financial markets have been characterized by boom and bust cycles since the 1980s, while the responsibility for managing retirement wealth has increasingly shifted onto individual households at the same time. Policymakers and experts have expressed concern over rising risk exposure among older households, who appear to be increasingly exposed to the growing financial risks just as they near retirement. We consider household data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances from 1989 to 2010 to analyze the correlation between age and risk exposure. We test if older households’ risk exposure has indeed grown over time, if it has increased …

Context Matters: Disability, The End Of Life, And Why The Conversation Is Still So Difficult, Alicia Ouellette

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Growing Power Of Healthcare Ethics Committees Heightens Due Process Concerns, Thaddeus Mason Pope

Faculty Scholarship

Complex ethical situations, such as end-of-life medical treatment disputes, occur on a regular basis in healthcare settings. Healthcare ethics committees (HECs) have been a leading dispute resolution forum for many of these conflicts. But while the function of HECs has evolved from mediation to adjudication, the form of HECs has not evolved to adapt to this expanded and more consequential function.

HECs are typically multidisciplinary groups comprised of representatives from different departments of the healthcare facility: medicine, nursing, law, pastoral care, and social work, for example. HECs were established to support and advise patients, families, and caregivers as they work …

Elder Self-Neglect And Adult Protective Services: Ohio Needs To Do More, William White

Journal of Law and Health

Ohio APS statutes are antiquated, do not reflect the increasingly complex needs of self-neglecting elderly, and need to be changed to decrease the likelihood of significant self-harm or even death, as represented in the story of Carlene. Section II of this paper provides background information on elder self-neglect and APS. Section III discusses why Ohio needs to mandate that APS jurisdiction includes nursing facilities and how the law could be effectively changed. Section IV discusses how APS interventions need to evolve to meet the diverse needs of the growing elderly population; a singular investigative response no longer fits for every …

Dispute Resolution Mechanisms For Intractable Medical Futility Disputes, Thaddeus Mason Pope

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

From Schiavo To Death Panels: How Media Coverage Of End-Of-Life Issues Affects Public Opinion, Sherrie Dulworth

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Advance Directives, Dementia, And Eligibility For Physician-Assisted Death, Paul T. Menzel

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Right-To-Die Cases: A New York Historical Perspective, Sol Wachtler

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Health Justice Denied Or Delayed At The End Of Life: A Crisis Needing Remedial Action, David C. Leven

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Give Me Liberty At My Death: Expanding End-Of-Life Choice In Massachusetts, Kathryn L. Tucker

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

A New Life For Wrongful Living, Nadia N. Sawicki

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of Autonomy: Force-Feedings In Catholic Hospitals And In Prisons, Ann Neumann

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Quality Assurance Privilege In Nursing Home Litigation: Why Kentucky Should Adopt The Narrow Approach, Hannah R. Jamison

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Role For Law In Preparing For Death, Barbara A. Noah

Faculty Scholarship

This Article discusses the limits of how end of life law can address threats to patient autonomy. The reluctance of physicians, patients and family to discuss end of life matters and to confront the certainty of death, together with a culture that actively denies the aging process itself, interferes with a patient’s ability to exercise choice as death approaches. Thus, patients often suffer needlessly from the continuation of treatments and life-supportive measures that they would choose to decline if better informed about their choices and the importance of choosing. Advance directives, as a legal mechanism, often fail fully to protect …

Aging Populations And Physician Aid In Dying: The Evolution Of State Government Policy, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

Professor David Orentlicher explores the evolution of physician assisted suicide from illegal taboo to the passage of Death with Dignity legislation and caselaw.

The Changing Legal Climate For Physician Aid In Dying, David Orentlicher

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Letter Regarding Pbgc Request For Information On Missing Participants In Individual Account Plans, Federal Register, Vol. 78, No. 120, June 21, 2013, Ellen A. Bruce, Brian Reilly

Pension Action Center Publications

On August 19, 2013, the Pension Action Center wrote to the Office of the General Counsel of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation in response to their request for comments on the implementation of a new program to deal with benefits of missing participants in terminating individual account plans.

Testimony Before The Erisa Advisory Council, Ellen A. Bruce

Pension Action Center Publications

I am the director of the Pension Action Center of the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston. In that capacity, I run the New England Pension Assistance Project (NEPAP), a U.S. Administration on Aging (AoA)-funded pension counseling project, and the Illinois Pension Assistance Project (IPAP) funded by the Retirement Research Foundation. Both of these projects represent low- and moderate-income plan participants who are having difficulty claiming their employer-sponsored retirement income. The AoA funds six pension counseling projects covering 29 states; all of which represent clients in much the same way we do at the Pension Action Center. My …

Special Populations: Mobilization For Change

Touro Law Review

This Article is based on a transcript of a break-out discussion which took place at An Obvious Truth: Creating an Action Blueprint for a Civil Right to Counsel in New York State, held at Touro Law Center, Central Islip, New York, in March 2008. The discussion was moderated by Karen L. Nicolson, Michael Williams, and Toby Golick.

This Article assesses the needs of various special populations and the possible strategies and solutions to create change through enacting a civil right to counsel. The Article is intended to capture information and viewpoints of the people who participated in the break-out discussion …