My Elder Advocate

Managed Long-Term Care (MLTC) A New Frontier for Medicaid Home Care

By Julia Greenberg, Esq.,Elder Law Attorney

Lamson & Cutner, P.C.

Major changes are being implemented in Medicaid's community-based long term care program.

One of the most dramatic of these changes is the mandatory enrollment of individuals who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid in a managed long-term care (MLTC) plan. Dually eligible individuals had previously been exempt from mandatory enrollment.

Queens, New York Assisted Living Facility Discriminates Against Gay Man

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

One would not believe that in 2013, that a private assisted living facility in New York State would discriminate against a gay man, but that is exactly what happened to Carl Rizzio, the same gentleman mentioned in my last post dated March 31, 2013.

Are all nursing homes equipped to handle residents with Alzheimer's disease? Part I

 

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

The answer to this question is a resounding NO. Throughout the United States, there are many thousands of people, who are afflicted with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, and reside in nursing homes, that are not equipped to handle the special needs of this population. Instead these unfortunate souls (mostly poor) are thrown in with the general population at these facilities, and they die prematurely, not from physical illnesses, but from the rapid mental deterioration, due to the lack of meaningful therapy and stimuli.

Elderly Patient Is Thrown Out of NY Presbyterian/Cornell Hospital And Forced Into A Nursing Home

 

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

On a recent Friday afternoon Martin D. was resting in his private room at NY Presbyterian/Cornell Hospital recuperating from a MRSA Infection that he contracted at the hospital because of the negligence of one of the staff physicians. Suddenly 3 burly ambulance attendants came into his room with a stretcher, and very unceremoniously announced that he was being transferred to a nursing home in New Rochelle.

 

Music & Memory: Treating Nursing Home Patients With Music

PHOTOGRAPH BY BRANDON STANTON, HUMANS OF NEW YORK

For so many people, the music we listen to from childhood to adulthood is not just something playing in the background, but the bonding of music and memories. Every song is a scribbled note in the margin of a diary and the music of our lives becomes a soundtrack to the emotional scrapbooks we keep in our heads. Some songs have stronger memories attached than others. The obvious ones are tunes that remind us of emotional moments in our lives; romance, happiness, milestones. Some songs remind us of certain days or specific people. The simple playing of a particular tune can open up a page in that scrapbook and we’re suddenly ten or twenty or thirty again, reliving a moment from our lives.

via www.forbes.com

Hospital Refuses to Report Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

A patient advocate employed by Brookhaven Hospital in Brookhaven, New York flatly refused on two seperate occasions to report to the Department of Health, that a newly arrived resident of a local nursing home at been neglected and abused, as the law requires.

Nursing Homes fail to report deaths, injuries

By Sarah Karon Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

via www.wisconsinwatch.org

Attorney Warns Hospital Patient: Go to Sub-Standard Nursing Home, or Face Court Ordered Eviction.

 

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

In the last few week, among the many horrible cases that I have been dealing with, is the case of a 52 year old Multiple Sclerosis sufferer, who has been a patient at Brookhaven Hospital in Patchogue for a severe infection, that he developed as a result of the neglectful and abusive care he received as a resident, in a dangerous and sub-standard facility called Lakeview Nursing Home in Middle Island, NY.

Feeding Tubes For Elders: Benefit or Abuse?

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

Imbedded in today’s nursing home culture is a practice that has been notoriously associated with elder abuse in nursing homes. Nationwide, many nursing home residents with advanced cognitive impairment are tube fed (35% according to some studies), despite no demonstrable benefits of this intervention in this population. Studies suggest that organizational features of nursing homes are associated with this practice, but underlying reasons for these associations are poorly understood. A feeding tube in a sub-standard nursing home can be a death sentence. My Elder Advocate has been very successful in preventing this abuse from occurring in many cases, where we were called in early to advocate for clients who were losing weight in nursing homes.

Americare Home Care Agency Continues To Operate Despite Criminal Behaviour

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

When you are politically connected in New York, and you have tons of money, much of which was fraudulantly obtained, and you are billing New York State and the Federal Governement hundred of millions of dollars for elderly recepients of Medicare and Medicaid, what is a couple of million dollars in fines here and there? 

Elly Kleinman, founder and CEO of Americare, would probably tell you that $15,000,000 in fines over a 5 year period is the cost of doing business.

Alleged Nursing Home Rape in the Bronx

NY State Department Of Health Shares Responsibility For Death Trap Nursing Home

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

Hurricane Sandy announced itself by tossing a section of Boardwalk against the Promenade nursing home in Rockaway Park, Queens, blowing out its windows and sending waves washing through the first floor.

Read New York Times Article http://ow.ly/fgEMY

 

This nursing home like so many others in New York State has been consistantly rendering sub-standard care to thousands of elderly and disabled adults, never even complying with minimum standards of care as required by State and Federal Law. Every year the negligent and irresponsible New York State Department of Health rubber stamps the horrendous care in these facilities.

Broken Bones, Broken Lives: Falls In Nursing Homes

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

Falls among nursing home residents occur frequently and repeatedly.  According to the CDC, about 1,800 older adults living in nursing homes die each year from fall-related injuries and those who survive falls frequently sustain hip fractures and head injuries that result in permanent disability and reduced quality of life.

For an elderly person, a broken bone can lead to many other physical and mental health issues. Different types of nursing home abuse and nursing home neglect can cause broken bones in nursing homes.

 

 

Finally, A Bit Of Sanity: Some Medicaid Home Care Cuts in New York Are Stopped by Court

Earlier this year, he received a notice saying that his help was being cut to one live-in aide per day, who would sleep through the night, rather than two aides working for 12 hours each. Mr. Strouchler and others like him filed a class-action lawsuit, challenging reductions in care.

via www.nytimes.com

The Rampant Abuse of Elders By Using Guardianship

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

It is an often occurrence, that My Elder Advocate is called in to Advocate for a resident in a Nursing Home who has been placed there against their will by a court appointed guardian, and generally is being abused or neglected. In many of these guardianship cases, close family members have been banned from visiting their loved ones by guardians. In other cases nursing homes have been declared guardians and they have pillaged the personal accounts of the people they are supposed to protect.

Nursing Homes Tell LGBT Elders, “Get back into the closet.”

 

By Jack Halpern, CEO, My Elder Advocate

My Elder Advocate, in the course of each day, deals with many problems that elders face in nursing homes, hospitals, and at home. While all forms of discrimination in long-term care settings are egregious, the LGBT elders face a unique set of discriminatory policies and fears. The federal Nursing Home Reform Act (NHRA) protects nursing home residents, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.