Ratner & Pinchman

It is long overdue for state legislatures and state courts across the country to recognize, by statute and under state constitutions, a right to death with dignity. The compelling story of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, who moved from California to Oregon to be able to die with dignity, focused national attention on physician-assisted death. By Erwin Chemerinsky — The National Law Journal. http://www.nationallawjournal.com/commentary/id=1202718548868/OpEd-A-Human-Right-to-Deat

The Department of Health Care Services today posted the final 2014-15 Medi-Cal reimbursement rates for freestanding skilled-nursing and freestanding subacute providers under Assembly Bill 1629. The rates are effective retroactively to Aug. 1, 2014. In addition, the freestanding subacute rates for the 2013-14 rates year have been corrected for selected facilities in which rates were computed in error. http://newsmanager.commpartners.com/cahfeu/issues/2015-02-05/index.html

Existing law provides for the disposition of a testator’s property by will. Existing law establishes the Uniform Testamentary Additions to Trusts Act, under which a valid devise of property may be made by will to the trustee or trustees of a trust established or to be established by the testator or by the testator and some other person, commonly referred to as a pour-over will. Existing law provides that the decedent’s property, including property devised by a will, is genera

Public access to regulatory records broadened Thursday after the California Supreme Court ruled that state health officials must provide more information about actions against care facilities found to be lax in treating developmentally disabled and mentally ill people. A unanimous high court declared the state Department of Public Health provided far too little information in response to a 2011 Public Records Act request for citations issued against the seven largest state-ow

On February 12, 2015, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published final rules entitled “Medicare Program; Contract Year 2016 Policy and Technical Changes to the Medicare Advantage and the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit Programs” [CMS-4159-F2], otherwise known as the final 2016 rules for Medicare Parts C and D. http://www.medicareadvocacy.org/2016-medicare-advantage-part-c-and-part-d-final-rule-issued/ #ElderLaw

In a three-part series, NPR recently took on the persistent problem of antipsychotics in nursing homes. http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/12/08/368524824/old-and-overmedicated-the-real-drug-problem-in-nursing-homes #ElderLaw

A California nursing home fined by the state for substandard care and facing multiple lawsuits by patients and their families has taken the extreme measure of filing for bankruptcy protection in the face of millions of dollars in potential payouts. The action, taken by North American Health Care, which operates more than 30 homes in California and other Western states, is being derided by plaintiffs’ lawyers as a legal maneuver to avoid what could be catastrophic legal verdic

According to AARP: Starting immediately, the federal government is making it harder for nursing homes to get top grades on a public report card, in part by increasing scrutiny of their use of antipsychotic drugs and raising the bar on an array of quality measures. Read Full Article: http://blog.aarp.org/2015/02/13/government-nursing-home-ratings-getting-tougher/ #ElderLaw

Responding to a push by the ABA and elder rights advocates for a greater commitment from the federal government to address the growing problem of elder abuse, neglect and exploitation, Congress has approved $4 million in new funding this year for the Elder Justice Initiative. The funding was included in the omnibus appropriations legislation enacted by Congress in December for fiscal year 2015, which started Oct. 1, 2014. http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/financial_c

A new study from the Center for Retirement Research “How does ageing affect financial decision making?” The study followed a group of seniors of a period of time and measured their financial literacy. They also tracked the senior’s self-assessment on their confidence of their ability to make decisions. The study’s finding was that the seniors financial literacy declined by about one percent per year while their confidence in their decision making ability remained relatively