Elder Law Commons^™

Religious Refusal: Endangering Pregnant Women And Professional Standards, Stephane P. Fabus

Marquette Elder's Advisor

No abstract provided.

Due Process And The Guardian Ad Litem In Elder Law Disputes: Which Hat Will She Don With Her Cloak Of Neutrality?, Roger A. Eddleman, John A. Dinucci

Marquette Elder's Advisor

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents

Marquette Elder's Advisor

No abstract provided.

Financial Decision-Making For Adults Lacking The Capacity To Make Their Own Decisions, David M. English

Faculty Publications

A significant percentage of individuals lack sufficient mental capacity to make financial, health, and personal-care decisions for at least some period during their lifetimes. For those who die suddenly, that period may be brief. For those with Alzheimer’s Disease or other forms of dementia, the period of incapacity may last many years.

Family Caregiving And The Law Of Succession: A Proposal, Thomas P. Gallanis, Josephine Gittler

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

As the American population ages, the need for long-term care, already great, will become even greater. Some of this care is paid for by government programs, such as Medicaid, and by individual long-term care insurance policies. But the combination of the public fisc and private insurance are, and will continue to be, insufficient to pay for all of the care our seniors and adults with disabilities need. The provision of care in a family residence by one or more family members is an important component of our health care delivery system and must be supported and encouraged by public policy …

Assisted Death And The Slippery Slope—Finding Clarity Amid Advocacy, Convergence, And Complexity, Mary J. Shariff

Mary J. Shariff

This paper unpacks the slippery slope argument as it pertains to assisted death. The assisted-death regimes of the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the states of Washington and Oregon are discussed and examined with respect to the slippery slope analytical rubric. In addition to providing a preliminary explanation of how the slippery slope argument has been academically defined and constructed, the paper examines assisted-death models from the perspective of considering what might exist at the top and at the bottom of the slippery slope. It also explores the nature and scope of safeguards implemented to avoid slippage, and shows that …

Letter Regarding Irs Form 8955-Ssa Participant Notice Requirement, Mia Midenjak, Ellen A. Bruce

Pension Action Center Publications

On April 27, 2012, the Pension Action Center wrote to the Internal Revenue Service to advocate for the pension rights of American workers and retirees. The Pension Action Center’s letter was prompted by a request from the American Society of Pension Professionals and Actuaries (ASPPA) that plans be relieved of their legal obligation to notify departing workers of their right to a pension.

Changing Social Security To Achieve Long-Term Solvency And Make Other Improvements: Background Factors, Issues, Options, Peter W. Martin

Cornell Law Faculty Working Papers

For years those responsible for Social Security and policy analysts have acknowledged that the present statutory framework for determining and financing program benefits is unsustainable. Nonetheless, despite the work of Presidential commissions, countless Congressional hearings, proposals for reform advanced by individuals and groups across the political spectrum, changes to Social Security that would restore its fiscal balance into the foreseeable future have repeatedly been deferred or deflected by the nation's law-makers.

This paper aims to assist analysis of and reflection on the range of options for ensuring Social Security's future while not adding yet another solvency proposal to the already …

Increasing Consumer Involvement In Medicaid Nursing Facility Reimbursement: Lessons From New York And Minnesota, Edward M. Miller, Cynthia Rudder

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

This project identified the facts about Nursing Facility Reimbursement by Medicaid in the states of New York and Minnesota. The results of this project are as follows: Medicaid is the main purchaser of nursing home (NH) care in the United States; States design their methods of reimbursing NHs to achieve desired policy objectives; Few consumers or resident advocates have been involved in the development or modification of state methods for reimbursing NHs; Lack of consumer involvement has resulted in payment systems that favor industry and government interests at the expense of issues important to residents and families.

Pay-For-Performance In Five State Medicaid Programs: Lessons For The Nursing Home Sector, Edward M. Miller, Julia Doherty

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

This project looks at the pay-for-performance program in five state Medicaid programs and lists the lessons that the Nursing Home Sector can learn from. They are: The federal government has traditionally sought to ensure quality outcomes through nursing home (NH) surveys conducted by state officials; Some states have begun to experiment with pay-for-performance (P4P) incentives, which provider higher Medicaid reimbursement to those facilities achieving desired outcomes; By 2007, there were 9 state P4P programs covering 20% of NHs and 16.7% of residents; Little is known about the use of P4P to promote quality and efficiency in the NH sector.

Evaluating Economic Security For Massachusetts Seniors, Jan Mutchler, Ellen A. Bruce, Alison Gottlieb, Jiyoung Lyu, Yao‐Chi Shih, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Elder Economic Security Standard Index measures the income that Massachusetts’ seniors need to maintain independence and meet basic living expenses. The sizable gap between Social Security benefits and living expenses occurs throughout Massachusetts, but is more substantial for singles than for couples. Those who are older, single, female or a member of a racial or ethnic minority group are exposed to especially high risk of falling short of Index values. The Elder Index estimates the living costs for seniors in every locality in the country and serves as a valuable tool for community members, policy makers, and those working …

Reform That Understands Our Seniors: How Interdisciplinary Services Can Help Solve The Capacity Riddle In Elder Law, Thomas Richard Stasi

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Note suggests an interdisciplinary approach to assist in determinations of legal capacity. It also urges an amendment to the Model Rules and current law firm business models, so attorneys can better approach capacity challenges. While this Note does not presume to resolve the problems faced by capacity determinations, the purpose is to offer functional alternatives to the current working models. Part I reviews the Model Rules' treatment of capacity issues, detailing attorneys' conflicting ethical duties and the ambiguous methodology for capacity evaluations. Part II examines the customary processes that attorneys presently follow for seeking diagnostic evaluations and highlights their …

Living Wills In Kansas, Debra M. Sellers, Erin J. Dittman

Debra M. Sellers

A living will allows you to record in writing, what type of care you want at the end of your life, if you have a terminal illness.

Durable Power Of Attorney For Health Care In Kansas, Debra M. Sellers, Erin J. Dittman

Debra M. Sellers

Name a person authorized to make your health care decisions for you, when you are not capable of making decisions for yourself, with a Durable Power of Attorney.

Advanced Directives In Kansas, Debra M. Sellers, Erin J. Dittman

Debra M. Sellers

Advance directives are documents to state how you want to be cared for at the end of your life: durable power of attorney for health care and living will.

The Past And Future Of Deinstitutionalization Litigation, Samuel R. Bagenstos

Law & Economics Working Papers

Two conflicting stories have consumed the academic debate regarding the impact of deinstitutionalization litigation. The first, which has risen almost to the level of conventional wisdom, is that deinstitutionalization was a disaster. The second story does not deny that the results of deinstitutionalization have in many cases been disappointing. But it challenges the suggestion that deinstitutionalization has uniformly been unsuccessful, as well as the causal link critics seek to draw with the growth of the homeless population. This dispute is not simply a matter of historical interest. The Supreme Court’s 1999 decision in Olmstead v. L.C., which held that unjustified …

Which The Deader Hand? A Counter To The American Law Institute's Proposed Revival Of Dying Perpetuities Rules, Scott A. Shepard

Scott A. Shepard

Encouraged primarily by a fluke in federal estate and gift tax law, more than half of the states have either effectively or entirely abolished their rules against perpetuities in the past two decades. The American Law Institute, deeply troubled by this development, has adopted for its Third Restatement a proposed rule against perpetuities that would essentially prohibit conditional gifts to continue for the benefit of parties born more than two generations after the transferor.

The ALI’s efforts are misguided. The rule against perpetuities was the product of a legal, political and social age very different than our own. It was …

Standards For Health Care Decision-Making: Legal And Practical Considerations, A. Kimberley Dayton

Faculty Scholarship

This Article explores the guardian’s role in making, or assisting the ward to make, health care decisions, and provides an overview of existing standards and tools that offer guidance in this area. Part II outlines briefly the legal decisions and statutory developments assuring patient autonomy in medical treatment, and shows how these legal texts apply to and structure the guardian’s role as health care decision-maker. Part III examines the range of legal and practical approaches to such matters as decision-making standards, determining the ward’s likely treatment preferences, and resolving conflicts between guardians and health care agents appointed by the ward. …

Thinking Locally: Law, Aging And Municipal Government: Findings From A National Survey, A. Kimberley Dayton, Israel (Issi) Doron

Faculty Scholarship

Municipal law, which has been largely ignored in the body of elder-rights scholarship, often plays a far more important role in the everyday lives of older persons than the principally aspirational concepts of international law. Accordingly, this article examines how well modern cities have fulfilled their potential role in assuring the civil and human rights of older persons. The author concludes, based on the results of a national study, that local law is not currently fulfilling its potential as a means to expand the rights of older citizens. Few cities across the country appear to have taken more than minor …

Creating And Sustaining Interdisciplinary Guardianship Committees, Carolyn L. Dessin, Julia R. Nack, Judge Thomas Swift

Akron Law Faculty Publications

Over the past two decades, guardians, advocates, and the judiciary have been working at the national level to improve guardianship law and practice. This work was set in motion by a series of more than 200 Associated Press Wire Stories about guardianship abuses that were published in the mid-1980s. Over the next decade, guardians and other interested parties built relationships and established an association dedicated to improving guardianship. In the year 2000, members of the National Guardianship Association (“NGA”) wrote and formally adopted “Standards of Practice” for guardians. In 2001, at the Wingspan Conference held at Stetson University, other national …