Joseph Gilsoul

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) recently introduced the Disability Integration Act of 2015 (DIA) in the U.S. Senate.  If passed, the bill would require states and health insurers to provide services to people with disabilities in community settings rather than in institutions whenever possible.

Maryland’s highest court concludes that a juvenile court had the statutory authority to order the state to continue to provide full-time nursing services to a young adult with severe special needs beyond his 21st birthday until the adult guardianship and Medicaid systems could coordinate his ongoing care.  In re: Adoption / Guardianship of Dustin R. (Md., No. 24a15, Dec. 21, 2015).

In a case argued by elder law attorney William J. Browning, an Ohio appeals court upholds the state\’s decision to count the assets in a fully discretionary supplemental needs trust against a Medicaid recipient because the trust contains language allowing the trustee to use funds for the beneficiary\’s health or welfare and the beneficiary did not obtain a declaratory judgment stating that the trust is an exempt resource.  Cook v. Ohio Department of Job & Family Services (Ohio. Ct. App.,10th, Nos. 14AP-852, 14AP-853, Nov. 19, 2015).

My daughter\’s first-party special needs trust was paying for several services that weren\’t covered by Medicaid.  I know that if my daughter dies, the state has the right to recover funds from my daughter\’s trust for Medicaid services that it provided.  If there are outstanding bills from other service providers when my daughter passes away, can I pay those bills before paying back the state?

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has just released a new Program Operations Manual System (POMS) section governing the agency\’s treatment of ABLE accounts for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries.

Florida attorney and ASNP Advisory Board member David Lillesand has recently drafted a monograph describing the Social Security Administration\’s fee approval system and its impact on special needs planners.

An Indiana-based pooled special needs trust has been accused of passing along some $2.4 million in legal fees to the trust beneficiaries without explaining what the fees were actually used for.

A new six-episode reality TV series follows seven people with Down syndrome and their families as they go about their daily lives.

After coming under fire from disability rights organizations and financial institutions for issuing unworkable proposed regulations governing ABLE accounts, the IRS has backed off on several of its most unwieldy proposals.

Here are a couple of tricks for determining the type of disability benefit someone is receiving, short of finding the disability award letter or contacting the Social Security Administration directly.