Medicaid and asset protection

Very solid article in the NY Times online edition today about Medicaid and elder law planning.

What does this have to do with settlement planning and lawsuits? A lot. The single biggest obstacle to settling cases now is the planning for future medical care, nursing homes, respite care, in home care and who is paying for it, or what is the governments claim on your clients benefits. The NY Times article focuses more on elder law, but i've been saying for two years now if you practice personal injury law and you don't have a top flight elder law attorney either on staff or as part of your team you are almost certainly creating liability for yourself under the new Medicaid set a side provisions, or in many cases not fully informing your clients who qualify for government benefits as to their rights.

We are going to see a major overhaul of regulations on Medicare and Medicaid, and most of it is going to be focused on coming after estates and legal settlements. Start reading up now, partner with a good elder care attorney and make sure you learn what the options are by checking with the various experts we will be adding to our blogging list here on The Settlement Channel.