Adamsky Law Offices Blog

Who will speak for you if you become unable to speak for yourself or suffer a medical emergency? Have you planned for that unexpected possibility? You hope it won’t happen, but if it does, you must be ready. You must have the tools on hand to take proper care of you and to ensure that your wishes are followed. The first and most important planning tool is a Health Care Directive (a “Health Care Proxy” or a “Power of Attorney for Health Care”). This essential legal tool appoints a chosen and trusted person to communicate your wishes and decisions to medical professionals. If you can speak, then your wishes control, but if you cannot then your Health Care Agent will have full legal authority to speak with your doctor and to consent to treatment. Most importantly your Agent can refuse treatments that you may not want, such as feeding tubes or ventilators. It is vital that you have a discussion with your named Agent, and communicate your

The Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that there will be no change in the Community Spouse Resource Allowance (CSRA) nor the Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MaxMMNA) for 2010. These amounts are what a community spouse may keep in assets or is allowed to have as income, when the other spouse is in a nursing home on Medicaid. The figures are tied to inflation and adjusted yearly by CMS. Since the government inflation figures were less than zero for this year, there will be no adjustment for next year. The CSRA for 2010 will be $109,560 The MaxMMNA for 2010 will be $2,739 The Minimum MMNA is adjusted in July each year and it remains $1,821.25 until July 2010.

Jan L. Warner, a nationally syndicated elder law columnist and a founding member of the Carolinas Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, died of cancer on October 27, 2009, in Columbia, South Carolina. He was 67. Warner was a founding partner of the Columbia and Rock Hill law firm of ElderLaw Services of South Carolina, P.A./Warner, Payne and Black, L.L.P. After launching a column on divorce issues called "Flying Solo" with writer Jan Collins 20 years ago, Warner and Collins teamed up again in the late 1990s to start an elder law column called "Next Steps." Both columns are syndicated by United Media (United Features Syndicate). Warner and Collins also wrote a book called Next Steps (Linden, 2009), which was published in August. "Everything Jan did he did with great zeal," his partner Mitchell Payne said in an article on Warner published in The State , a Columbia newspaper. "He seemed to be able to do everything at once." "