Adamsky Law Offices Blog

In the next few weeks, the Senate should finalize legislation to reform America's health care system. Although around 48 million Americans don't have medical insurance, more than 250 million have no insurance protection for the costs of long-term-care. This is why advocacy groups representing the elderly and those with special needs are pressing for the inclusion of long-term care services and supports in any legislation. The Senate Finance and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committees are scheduled to finalize their legislative proposals for health care reform within the next two to three weeks (mid-May to early June, 2009). The bills are expected to be merged on the Senate floor in June 2009. Three House committees are also developing their own legislation, but are not as far along as the Senate. Advocacy groups, such as the Disability Policy Collaborative and the Autism Society of America , are calling for an end to Medicaid's institutional bias, which denies A...

New York, NY – More than two years after it first filed an appeal, the Medicare Rights Center has secured coverage under the Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit for a New York woman’s ovarian cancer treatment. As a result, Judith M. Layzer will obtain coverage from her Part D plan of Cetrotide, a hormone treatment costing upwards of $35,000 per month, which has been shown effective against ovarian cancer, with minimal toxicity, in a study in the journal Gynecologic Oncology. “This decision means I will be able to afford to continue an effective treatment prescribed by my doctor,” Mrs. Layzer said. “I have been energetically pursuing this approval and so has the Medicare Rights Center and we finally won, but it should not be this hard, or take this long, to obtain coverage for medically necessary drugs.” The victory, handed down in an April 20, 2009 decision by the Part D independent review entity, follows passage last summer of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers...

A Bill, pending in Congress, would end the two-year waiting period for Medicare benefits for people who qualify for Social Security Disability (SSD) - individuals who have suffered a medical condition that renders them unable to work ("Permanently and Totally Disabled"). Medicare coverage is currently available to individuals who are determined to be eligible for SSD benefits, but not until 29 months after the month in which SSD eligibility is determined. For those without private insurance, who can't afford COBRA, or whose costs exceed the catastrophic limits of their private coverage, the 29 month wait creates serious financial hardship and often leads to impoverishment for those who need to spend down for Medicaid coverage. Some couples must consider divorce to protect the non-disabled spouse. Please ask your Senators and Representative to co-sponsor the Ending the Medicare Disability Waiting Period Act of 2009 (S. 700/H.R. 1708), which will end this two-year waitin...

People often place conditions on inheritances -- for example, requiring a grandchild to complete college before she can receive trust proceeds -- but is it legal for someone to dictate who their heirs can and cannot marry? This is a question that the Illinois Supreme Court is now weighing. Max Feinberg established a trust that contained a clause disinheriting any of his grandchildren if they married outside the Jewish faith. Despite this clause, four of his five grandchildren chose to marry spouses who were not Jewish. After both Max and his wife, Erla, had died, one of the grandchildren sued her father and an aunt and uncle -- the co-executors of Max and Erla's estates -- claiming that the three had conspired to evade estate taxes and had misappropriated millions of dollars from the estates. The co-executors countered that the grandchild had no legal standing to sue them because she was no longer a beneficiary of the estate, having married a non-Jew. A trial court ruled that the c...