A federal district court grants a Medicaid beneficiary\’s request for a preliminary injunction preventing the Connecticut Department of Social Services from treating two trusts established for the beneficiary by her deceased mother as countable resources before they were decanted into supplemental needs trusts.  Simonsen v. Bremby (D.Ct., No. 15-cv-1399, Dec. 23, 2015).

The Academy of Special Needs Planners has signed on to a letter drafted by the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) asking the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to stop treating most distributions from special needs trusts as income for purposes of qualifying for Section 8 or Section 811 housing assistance.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, commonly known as the ADA, is considered one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation for people with disabilities.  This is how it works.

In certain circumstances the Social Security Administration will fast-track a disability benefits application through a process known as Compassionate Allowances, usually because the applicant is suffering from a severe disability that may be life-threatening.

Once you begin to understand how the gift tax system really works, you may be pleasantly surprised to learn that most people can fund a special needs trust for a person with disabilities with a lot more than $14,000 a year.

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.