Senators Urge Examination of Guardianship Laws

by MyChesCo

© Sasirin Pamai's Images / Canva

U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Bob Casey (D-PA) and Ranking Member Mike Braun (R-IN) sent a letter this week to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) regarding guardianship laws across the Nation. There are an estimated 1.3 million older adults and people with disabilities in guardianships, which are legal relationships created when a court determines that a person is incapable of making important decisions on their own. Considering the lack of data on guardianships across the U.S., Senators Casey and Braun requested GAO examine and report on guardianship laws throughout the country, the use of guardianships, and efforts to reform the guardianship system.

Recent Senate Special Committee on Aging testimony and media reports suggest that guardian abuse and fraud can have devastating effects. Such abuse can deprive older adults, people with disabilities, and others of their rights, their financial security, and even contact with their families.

“Although many guardians live up to their obligations, testimony and media stories illustrate the dark side of guardianships. Some adults are wrongly placed into guardianships, which can be unnecessarily restrictive and violate their rights.  The status of people under guardianships may be ‘poorly monitored in sufficient, meaningful, and diligent ways,’ resulting in ‘exploitation, abuse, and neglect,’” wrote the Senators.

The majority of people in guardianships are seniors and people with disabilities. Many need permission to see a doctor, take or refuse medication, live in in their own homes, spend their own money, and even vote. They also face increased risk of abuse, neglect, and exploitation by unscrupulous guardians. Efforts to reform guardianship systems and options for states to promote less restrictive alternatives are varied across the country.

Read the letter here.

Full Article & Source:
Senators Urge Examination of Guardianship Laws

There's Nothing Funny About Guardianship

There is nothing funny about guardianship. But that didn't stop John Oliver from tackling a subject, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, that is fast becoming a problem for older Americans -- court-appointed professional guardians who have been granted legal authority to control an individual's life and finances.

Now, according to Oliver, when the system works, it's great. But when it doesn't work, well, it doesn't work at all.

Indeed, during the program, there's a video clip of Steve King, a judge in Tarrant County, Texas, saying the following: "Guardianship is a massive intrusion into a person's life... they lose more rights than someone who goes to prison."

And where things get problematic, according to Oliver, is where guardians gain control of their ward's finances. That's because, according to Oliver, private guardians can bill for each individual service they provide, from leaving voicemail messages to just opening the mail, and they can take payment directly from their ward's estate. "And those charges can accumulate fast and sometimes seem ridiculous," said Oliver, who then went on to show video clips of a guardian who charged his ward $1,027 to take go to a Phoenix Suns basketball game and to evaluate, among other things the effect the game had on the ward's mood.

Oliver also noted how guardians sometimes don't even know if their ward is alive or dead and how just 12 states require professional guardians be certified at all. "So just about anyone can become one," said Oliver, pointing to this Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, The Extent of Abuse by Guardians Is Unknown, but Some Measures Exist to Help Protect Older Adults.

And that means they, the professional guardians, are going to steal money according to Greg Kutz, a GAO investigator.

According to Oliver, the lack of oversight is worrisome given how easy it is to have a professional guardian appointed by a court and how long it takes to get out from under that guardianship. To be fair, Oliver said guardianship isn't inherently bad -- there are people who need it. But the checks and balances of court-appointed professional guardians needs, given the silver tsunami that's coming, to be improved -- from greater regulation to more funding for oversight.

What He Got Right, and Wrong
So, what did Oliver get right about guardianship, what did he get wrong, and what did he fail to include but should have? We asked experts for their thoughts.

As a general matter, Oliver did a good job providing an accessible overview of guardianship, some of the problems that can occur, and steps that can be taken to reduce problems, says Nina Kohn, the associate dean for research and online education and a law professor at Syracuse University College of Law.

"However, it's important to recognize that much of the behavior Oliver described in the segment is not only immoral, it's illegal," says Kohn, who testified before the Senate Aging Committee earlier this year. "Guardians have a fiduciary duty to the individuals for whom they serve. The types of fees Oliver describes guardians charging violate this most basic legal duty."

In good news, Kohn reports that the Uniform Law Commission recently released model legislation for the states that, if adopted by the states (and Maine has already adopted it), would help prevent such fees from being paid in the first place.

"As I noted in my Senate testimony, the act limits the ability of unscrupulous guardians to drain assets by charging unreasonable fees," says Kohn. "For example, it requires courts to consider the market value of services provided by guardians before approving fees. After all, attorneys serving as guardians should not generally be paid their hourly rate to do non-legal tasks like grocery shopping."

Full Article and Source:
There's Nothing Funny About Guardianship

Assisted Living: A $10 Billion Industry With Little Oversight

For millions of older Americans, there’s nothing stronger than the desire to age in place, maintaining their independence and avoiding intensive institutional care for as long as possible. Increasingly, assisted living is filling the gap between home and a nursing facility.

States spend a reported $10 billion in federal and state money per year on Medicaid beneficiaries in assisted living facilities, averaging $30,000 per patient, per year. But it’s not clear whether governments are getting their money’s worth in terms of quality of care and, critically, the safety and well-being of the facilities’ residents.

Answers to some of those concerns came in a February report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found significant shortcomings in oversight of assisted living facilities across the country. Forty-eight states receive some kind of Medicaid funding for assisted living facilities, but 26 of those states do not report “critical incidents” -- including unexplained deaths, abuse, neglect or financial exploitation -- to the federal government.

Yet for many who advocate for older Americans, the GAO report had shortcomings of its own. The advocacy group Justice in Aging put out a statement contending that the report “barely scratches the surface” of the lack of oversight and reporting requirements. And Eric Carlson, directing attorney for Justice in Aging, says that even for the 22 states that do collect data on serious infractions, the information isn’t easy enough for the public to obtain. “I’m not sure it would be all that useful,” he says.

There is little in the way of federal standards around Medicaid-funded assisted living facilities, leaving states mostly in charge of regulating them. So without clear guidance from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), these facilities largely operate under a hodgepodge of rules set by states’ long-term care departments.

A sad result of that lack of regulation was seen at Valley Springs Manor, a California assisted living facility that closed with no warning back in 2014, leaving 19 residents inside without care. The incident gained national attention when a cook and a janitor stayed behind until the residents were safely relocated, shining a light on how little is required of these facilities.

Most of the 48 states that receive some form of Medicaid funding for assisted living get that money only for patients who have needs equal to an institutional level of care, such as a hospital or nursing home. So most Medicaid-reliant assisted living facilities do not employ full-time nurses -- if they employ any nurses at all -- and instead rely on “caregivers,” a role that requires far less education.

Carlson acknowledges that he isn’t an expert in what every state is doing, but he says that based on a 2014 report he worked on for the National Senior Citizen Law Center, some of the Deep South states -- Alabama, Florida and, in particular, Arkansas -- have some of the most rigorous standards for their assisted living facilities. Arkansas, for example, has a tiered system, with higher-need residents living separately from more autonomous residents and nurses responsible for designing the care plan for those needier residents.

That’s a level of oversight the advocates would like to see nationwide, and there is some change on the horizon. In 2014, CMS issued new guidelines for all “community-based care” facilities, including those providing assisted living. The guidelines are still being phased in for many states, but advocates hope that as more states draw up transition plans, their assisted living facilities will finally be held to a higher standard.

Full Article & Source:
Assisted Living: A $10 Billion Industry With Little Oversight

GAO contends CMS website falls short in comparing nursing homes

Nursing Home Compare, an online resource provided by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, enables consumers to research and compare nursing homes using a rating system. However, an audit by the Government Accountability Office has found that while the website is helpful it lacks key information, such as consumer satisfaction scores.

“Nursing home selection can be a stressful and time-sensitive process, so these are important tools that CMS makes available to the public. However, our review found opportunities for improvement in both the website and the ratings,” concludes the report.

In the United States, nearly 16,000 nursing homes participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs provide care to 1.4 million Americans annually—a number that is expected to grow as baby boomers age. To help the growing population of seniors in need of such services, CMS developed Nursing Home Compare to assist consumers in finding and comparing nursing homes based on a five-star quality system.

Specifically, the GAO discovered several factors inhibiting the ability of the rating system to help users understand nursing home quality and choose between high- and low- performing homes—which is the primary goal that CMS is attempting to achieve.

According to auditors, the “ratings were not designed to compare nursing homes nationally, limiting the ability of the rating system to help consumers who live near state borders or have multistate options.” Further, the GAO concluded that the rating system “does not include consumer satisfaction survey information, leaving consumers to make nursing home decisions without this important information.”

To address these and other shortcomings, GAO made four recommendations to CMS on how it can improve the Nursing Home Compare website and make it a better tool for consumers:

• Establish a systematic process for reviewing potential website improvements that includes and describes steps on how CMS will prioritize the implementation of potential website improvements.
  

• Add information to the five-star system that allows consumers to compare nursing homes nationally.

• Evaluate the feasibility of adding consumer satisfaction information to the five-star system.

• Develop and test with consumers some introductory explanatory information on the five-star system to be prominently displayed on the homepage. Such information should explain, for example, how the overall rating is calculated, the importance of the component ratings, where to find information on the timeliness of the data, and whether the ratings can be used to compare nursing homes nationally.
  

A CMS spokesperson declined to comment on the GAO findings and recommendations, and instead referred to the agency’s official written response published in the audit report.

In its written comments, CMS concurred with three of the GAO’s four recommendations but did not agree to add national comparison information to the Nursing Home Compare website. The agency argued that because of state variation in the execution of standard surveys, it is difficult to compare homes nationally on the health inspection component. It also noted that the five-star system is just one of many factors consumers should use when selecting a nursing home.

However, GAO insists that this information is important and should be included.

“We maintain that the ability for consumers to compare nursing homes nationally is critical to making nursing home decisions, especially for those consumers who live near state borders or have multistate options, and that our recommendation remains valid,” states the report.

Full Article & Source:
GAO contends CMS website falls short in comparing nursing homes

GAO: Extent of elder abuse from guardians remains unclear

The national extent of elder abuse by guardians is unknown because data are limited on key factors, such as the numbers of guardians serving older adults, older adults in guardianships and cases of elder abuse by guardians, according to a new report issued Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office. The GAO prepared the report at the request of the Senate Special Committee on Aging.

Financial exploitation appears to be one of the most common types of elder abuse by guardians, according to court officials and organization representatives with whom members of the GAO spoke, Kathryn A. Larin, GAO acting director of forensic audits and investigative service, told the Aging Committee at a hearing at which the report was released.

Hearing witness Jaye Martin, executive director of Legal Services for the Elderly in Augusta, ME, told the Aging Committee about a case in Belfast, ME, where an attorney lost his license and was sentenced to 30 months in prison for stealing almost $500,000 from two assisted living residents.

“Both women had appointed the attorney as their financial agent under a power of attorney due to declines in cognitive ability and other medical complications,” she said. “Both had lacked family members to assist with that role. Each believed she was appointing a trusted professional. The thefts were identified by a local bank teller who spotted the questionable transactions and alerted the authorities.”

Most financial exploitation of older adults involves a family member or other trusted person, Martin said. “It is very common for the perpetrator to have obtained legal authority through a POA, guardianship or conservatorship,” she added.

One study puts the annual national cost of financial exploitation at $36.5 billion, Martin said, adding: “It is time to collect data on these abuses on a national basis, and a good place to start is with the state courts and guardianships and conservatorships.”

Larin noted that the Department of Health and Human Services plans to launch the National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System — a national reporting system under development since 2013 and based on data from state Adult Protective Services agency information systems — by early 2017. 

“According to HHS and its contractor, this system has the capability to collect information that could specifically help identify cases of elder abuse where a guardian was involved,” she said.

The GAO also identified state and local initiatives to capture key data points and complaint data as well as identify “red flags,” such as unusually high guardian fees or excessive vehicle or dining expenses, Martin said. Some states have undertaken screening, education, monitoring and enforcement efforts to protect older adults from abuse by guardians, she added.

The federal government does not regulate or directly support guardianship, Martin noted. Rather, state and local courts have primary responsibility over the guardianship process.

“But federal agencies may provide indirect support to state guardianship programs by providing funding for efforts to share best practices and facilitate improved coordination, as well as by sharing information that state and local entities can use related to guardianship,” she said.

The GAO's report shows that progress is being made, said Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), chairwoman of the Aging Committee, “but much more needs to be done to put best practices in place to oversee guardians and create the tools needed to uncover potential abuse in time to stop it.”

The committee's ranking member, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), noted that the GAO report identified steps that states can take to protect seniors from guardianship arrangements that are bad for them.

“For example, state courts should do their due diligence to make sure that a guardian is truly needed for an individual before one is appointed,” she said. “Allowing seniors to remain in the least-restrictive option can protect the individual while also maintaining as much freedom as possible.
Additionally, state courts should periodically re-examine whether guardianships are working well for both parties over the course of the arrangement, and make adjustments where necessary.”

Full Article & Source:
GAO: Extent of elder abuse from guardians remains unclear

New GAO Report on Guardianship: "ELDER ABUSE: The Extent of Abuse by Guardians is Unknown, but Some Measures Exist to Help Protect Older Adults"

The extent of elder abuse by guardians nationally is unknown due to limited data on key factors related to elder abuse by a guardian, such as the numbers of guardians serving older adults, older adults in guardianships, and cases of elder abuse by a guardian. Court officials from six selected states GAO spoke to noted various data limitations that prevent them from being able to provide reliable figures about elder abuse by guardians, including incomplete information about the ages of individuals with guardians. Officials from selected courts and representatives from organizations GAO spoke to described their observations about elder abuse by a guardian, including that one of the most common types appeared to be financial exploitation. Some efforts are under way to try to collect better data on elder abuse and guardianship at the federal, state, and local levels to support decision making and help prevent and address elder abuse by guardians. For example, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans to launch the National Adult Maltreatment Reporting System—a national reporting system based on data from state Adult Protective Services (APS) agency information systems by early 2017. According to HHS and its contractor, this system has the capability to collect information that could specifically help identify cases of elder abuse where a guardian was involved. GAO also identified state and local initiatives to capture key data points and complaint data as well as identify “red flags” such as unusually high guardian fees or excessive vehicle or dining expenses.

The federal government does not regulate or directly support guardianship, but federal agencies may provide indirect support to state guardianship programs by providing funding for efforts to share best practices and facilitate improved coordination, as well as by sharing information that state and local entities can use related to guardianship. State and local courts have primary responsibility over the guardianship process and, as such, have a role in protecting older adults with guardians from abuse, neglect, and exploitation. Measures taken by selected states to help protect older adults with guardians vary but generally include screening, education, monitoring, and enforcement.

What the GAO Found: ELDER ABUSE:  The Extent of Abuse by Guardians is Unknown, but Some Measures Exist to Help Protect Older Adults

Read the GAO's report:  ELDER ABUSE:  The Extent of Abuse by Guardians is Unknown, but Some Measures Exist to Help Protect Older Adults

Watch the Senate Special Committee on Aging Hearing: "Trust Betrayed: Financial Abuse of Older Americans by Guardians and Others in Power" 

Abuse of the Elderly by Guardians Often Takes the Form of Financial Exploitation

When guardians harm the elderly person they're looking after, they often do it by targeting the victim's wealth, according to a federal report released on Wednesday.

The Government Accountability Office study cited eight cases in six states involving elder abuse by a guardian. Each of them involved financial ripoffs. Penalties and restitution ordered by courts ranged from $20,000 to $160,000.

“Officials from selected courts and representatives from organizations GAO spoke to described their observations about elder abuse by a guardian, including that one of the most common types appeared to be financial exploitation,” the GAO report states. “A prosecutor in one of the states we spoke to shared her observation that the majority of financial exploitation by professional guardians is done through overcharging for services that were either not necessary or were never performed.”

“Guardians should be protecting seniors, not stealing from them,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine and chairman of the Senate Aging Committee. The GAO study was released at a panel hearing on Wednesday.

Full Article and Source:
Abuse of the Elderly by Guardians Often Takes the Form of Financial Exploitation

Press Release: Senator McCaskill Protecting Missouri Seniors

WASHINGTON –- U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill is continuing her bipartisan push to ensure that Missouri seniors are protected from neglect and abuse by legal guardians, enlisting the help of a witness from southwest Missouri. Jessica Kruse, from Ozarks Elder Law in Springfield, Missouri will testify at a McCaskill hearing on Wednesday focusing on preventing abuse by individuals who are court-appointed guardians.

Ms. Kruse will also discuss some of the challenges that local law enforcement and prosecutors in Missouri face when attempting to combat elder financial abuse. The hearing will take place in the Senate Aging Committee, which is led by McCaskill and Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine.

Last year McCaskill asked the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to update a report it issued in 2010 which found examples of serious abuse, particularly by individuals who make their livings as professional guardians. In conjunction with the hearing, GAO will publicly release its report titled “Elder Abuse: The Extent of Abuse by Guardians Is Unknown, but Some Measures Exist to Help Protect Older Adults.”

Senate Aging Committee Hearing: “Trust Betrayed: Financial Abuse of Older Americans by Guardians and Others in Power”
WEDNESDAY, November 30
1:30 p.m. CT, Dirksen Senate Office Building 562

Witnesses for the hearing will also include Kathryn Larin, Acting Director; Forensic Audit and Investigative Services Team, Government Accountability Office; Cate Boyko, Manager of the Minnesota Conservator Account Auditing Program; Jaye Martin, Main Legal Services for the Elderly.

Source:
Press Release:  Senator McCaskill Protecting Missouri Seniors

5 Most Insidious Ways Elderly are Preyed Upon

A whole cottage industry of professional fiduciaries, called the "protection industry" by some, has sprung up around the dependent elderly who can't fend for themselves. These fiduciaries often manage many clients, play a paternalistic role in their lives, and demonstrate no or limited interest in their well-being. Some critics say that fiduciaries "profit off mostly helpless people."

Here are five things you should know about the protection industry.

1. A guardianship (also called a conservatorship) is the most restrictive form of court intervention and it may deny you all, or some, of your freedoms indefinitely.
A guardianship can strip a person of his or her basic freedoms—sometimes in just a matter of minutes—and can reduce him or her to the status of an infant.

The National Association to Stop Guardian Abuse (NASGA), an organization that posts, blogs, tweets, and reports on guardianship abuse, calls the guardianship system "a growing menace which feeds on greed." It criticizes the judicial system for its complicity in usurping people's liberties and property.

2.No particular qualifications are required to become a conservator or a guardian.
No special qualifications or specialized knowledge in accounting, law, or social work are needed to become a conservator or a guardian. In most states, the single prerequisite is that a person must be mentally competent.

Only about 18 states place some restrictions on who can become a guardian, and just a handful of states prohibit convicted felons from being appointed as guardians.

3.Families and friends are often helpless to protect loved ones from an abusive guardian.
Not only is a loved one legally required to relinquish decision-making power over to court-appointed guardians and conservators, but the loved one is also rendered powerless to do something about it.

4.Few restrictions protect an elderly ward from an unscrupulous guardian.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report titled "Guardianships: Cases of Financial Exploitation, Neglect, and Abuse of Seniors" that explored the widespread allegations of elder mistreatment by guardians. The study found that state courts did not adequately screen guardians prior to their appointments, assigning people with criminal convictions and/or financial troubles to manage wards' substantial estates.

5. The legal system is ill-equipped to help elderly wards, because it [the system] is part of the problem.
Many elders have become victims of exploitation due to “lax” reporting standards and "generally inadequate" guardianship monitoring efforts by the courts, according to a 90-plus-page report released by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Full Article and Source:
5 Most Insidious Ways Elderly are Preyed Upon

See Also:
The Con Came:  A Failure of Trust

Illinois Attorney Ken Ditkowsky on his Suspension from the Practice of Law for Four Years

Every lawyer, to obtain his license, takes an oath to defend the Constitution. The oath is not benign, it creates obligation.  The League of Women Voters has a  slogn that captures the obligation:  "DEMOCRACY IS NOT A SPECTATOR SPORT!"

Over the centuries, despots have assaulted the Right of the public to speak out, and it is not a surprise that right here in America we have people who are assaulting the First Amendment.   It is also no surprise that we also have some dishonest citizens.   It is also not a surprise that some are in positions of power.    The surprise is that we are not jealous of the bounty that our founding fathers bequeath to us.

   

It is no secret that there are also some perfectly legitimate guardian ships that are well handled, well supervised and very necessary.  These latter guardian-ships are not the subject of our discussion.  However, it is no secret that 'elder cleansing' is a National cottage industry and thousands of senior citizens and disabled people are railroaded each year into un-necessary guardian-ships in which they are reduced to no class citizenship.    (See GAO reports to Congress). This is were the problem lies and that has to be addressed.

In the attached documents I discuss the problem as it relates to me.   I am a voyeur as I have no stake in the specific game, but, in the overall situation I have a huge stake.    I could wind up with Cynthia Farenga or Adam Stern in my future!   In fact any of us could.    

Thus, like it or not - we are all in the same boat.   When Alice Gore was rolled into a 'facility' to have her teeth mined for their gold, it was an offense against each of our rights!    When Mary Sykes' safety deposit box was drilled and the contents (of over a million dollars in gold coins) was looted each of us suffered a loss.   Indeed, when Ms. Wyman was sexually assaulted so was each of us!    18 USCA 4 required each of us to report these felonies to law enforcement!     

My participation in fighting against the War being waged on the elderly and disabled was involuntary.   Adam Stern and Peter Schmiedel recruited me when they threatened me with sanctions if I did my job as a lawyer. 

 

Jerome Larkin recruited me when he demanded that I repent for being outraged at seeing senior citizens robbed of their liberty, their property, their civil rights and their human rights.   My father and his brothers each enlisted in the United States Armed Services to fight when America was attacked in 1941.  When confronted with the cancer of 'elder cleansing' I also had no choice.   

An election is coming up - it is time to remove some of the political elite who foster (or cannot be bothered with fighting elder cleanings) from the offices that they temporarily enjoy and restore them to private employment. 

 

It is time to demand that law enforcement do HONEST intelligent complete and comprehensive investigations of each and every one of these cases.   If criminal activity or ultra vires activity is found the miscreants should be treated to the appropriate remediation.

~Ken Ditkowsky

 

See Also:
Alice Gore, Illinois Victim

Mary Sykes, Illinois Victim

Federal Nursing Home Enforcement System is Not Punitive: Setting the Record Straight Again

The Department of Health and Human Services' Inspector General recently reported that nearly one third-of nursing home residents suffered an adverse event or other harm during a stay in a Medicare-participating nursing home in August 2011, and that most of the adverse events or other harm were preventable and the result of problems in staffing.[1]  Despite evidence of poor quality of care, the nursing home industry continues calls for a "new examination" of the public oversight process, choosing to believe the oversight process, rather than the care itself, is the problem.[2]

Industry challenges to the federal oversight system are certainly not new.[3]  Nevertheless, in light of the industry's continued attacks on the regulatory system and its call for a new method of nursing facility oversight, it is time to set the record straight again: the regulatory system does not need a "new examination." Rather, it needs to be fully and effectively implemented.

Industry Claims

LeadingAge, the national trade association of not-for-profit nursing facilities, claims that the current enforcement system is punitive and does not serve its primary purpose of protecting residents and ensuring quality.  It proposes what it calls "an objective, third-party examination of the present federal-state nursing home oversight process."[4]  In support of its proposal, the trade association cites the Inspector General's March 2014 report about adverse events and harm, a series of reports by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) "issued over the past decade [that] have found that the present nursing home oversight process is inadequate to ensure quality care and is overwhelming for regulatory agencies to administer,"[5] and its own 2006 report, Broken and Beyond Repair.[6]  LeadingAge describes the regulatory system as "a punitive oversight process, built on fines and punishment"[7] and touts its own initiatives, notably Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Homes and Quality First, as the solution to poor quality of care.

The Federal Regulatory System Is Not Punitive

The Inspector General's (IG's) recent report identifying extraordinarily poor care for Medicare residents does not support LeadingAge's thesis that the regulatory system is poorly designed and punitive.  Similarly, reports issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) offer no support for LeadingAge's claim.  Over the past decade, the IG and the GAO have uniformly reported that it is not the regulatory system itself that is the problem, but rather the implementation of the system, finding, specifically, that implementation has been too ineffectual, too timid, and too poorly used to make a difference.  Not even the reports cited by industry groups claim that the enforcement system has been fully implemented and nevertheless failed to improve care for residents.  GAO report titles graphically make this point: Nursing Homes: Addressing the Factors Underlying Understatement of Serious Care Problems Requires Sustained CMS and State Commitment,[8] Federal Monitoring Surveys Demonstrate Continued Understatement of Serious Care Problems and CMS Oversight Weaknesses,[9] Efforts to Strengthen Federal Enforcement Have Not Deterred Some Homes from Repeatedly Harming Residents,[10] Nursing Home Deaths: Arkansas Coroner Referrals Confirm Weaknesses in State and Federal Oversight of Quality of Care.[11]

Full Article & Source:
Federal Nursing Home Enforcement System is Not Punitive: Setting the Record Straight Again

Laurie Roberts Honors Marie Long: Probate Victim Spoke Softly But Was Heard

The first time I saw her, she was in a nursing home for welfare cases. She was sitting in a reclining chair in a drab common area, staring into space as the smell of urine and ammonia wafted through the room.

It was a sad place to land toward the end of a long life and sadder still because it never should have happened.

Marie Long had planned for her sunset years. Then a stroke placed her under the authority of Maricopa County's probate court, where she was protected right into the poorhouse.

After five years of fighting, Marie in December got some of her money back from the lawyers and fiduciaries charged with protecting her though not in time to make a difference in her life.
Marie died on April 22, at age 92.

"She was able to pass knowing all the hard work of others paid off – that gave her much joy," her niece, Kim Raynak, told me. "She actually did a fist pump in the air when we told her of the win."

Marie and her husband, Cliff, planned for their old age, knowing they'd be alone. Their daughter, Patsy, died of cancer at 16. Their son, Bobby, was 20 when he was killed in Vietnam. When Cliff died in 2003, he left Marie in solid financial shape.

She had $1.3 million in assets in 2005, when she suffered a stroke. After a family dispute over where she would live, Marie wound up in probate court, where lawyers and fiduciaries help vulnerable people and sometimes they help themselves, too, to a tidy pile of cash, unless a judge stops it.
Marie's judge didn't stop it and so she was paying $106 for hearing-aid batteries and $50-an-hour for someone to open her mail and $19 to reply to her request for new shoes.

By 2009, she was broke and moved to nursing home for indigents, though her family eventually was able to move her to a nicer place once her money dried up and her for-profit guardian promptly bailed.

Marie's lawyers, Jon Kitchel and Patricia Gitre, worked for free for years, trying to stop the bleeding and then to get some of her money back.

But a probate judge ruled that the attorneys and fiduciaries were justified in helping themselves to more than $1 million of Marie's money and the Supreme Court left the bulk of the judge's ruling intact.

The December settlement brought enough so that Marie would be able to live out her life comfortably. Sadly, she never got the chance to enjoy it.

She did, however, get the chance to change things. As a result of what happened to Marie, laws were changed and reforms were enacted in the hope of better protecting the Maries among us.

"We now have some of the tools that ought to help us prevent another Marie Long case," Kitchel told me. "My optimism is tempered because I know that the tools we had during Marie's case should have been enough."

Marie Long didn't get to fully enjoy her final years as she should have and that is such a shame. But the sweet old lady who spoke so softly was, at least, heard.

"I would like," she once whispered to me, "that this doesn't happen to anybody else."

Source:
Probate Victim Spoke Softly But Was Heard

See Also:
CBS: Guardianship Company Cost Woman Dearly

READ the GAO report:  Guardianships:  Cases of Financial Exploitation, Abuse and Neglect of Seniors

NASGA's "An Open Letter to Congress and the White House

Exploitation of Seniors Cost Them $3B a Year

A call from someone posing as a distressed grandchild needing emergency cash. An unannounced visit from men claiming they can repave a driveway at a discount. An email from a stranger who asks to be a penpal, then asks for money.

 

All are scams, and all have been effective at bilking seniors out of thousands of dollars, a group of elder-fraud experts told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Thursday.

More than 25 million adults, many 65 and older, were victims of fraud in 2011, according to the Federal Trade Commission. The Government Accountability Office, Congress' watchdog, estimates that “financial exploitation” cost seniors $3 billion in 2010.

 

Experts say the true numbers are underreported because the elderly are especially embarrassed to report they've been victimized. Those living alone and suffering from dementia can be easy prey, they said.

 

The problem is expected to get worse thanks to technological advances that have made reaching — and scamming — vulnerable seniors much easier, said Kay Brown, director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security for the GAO. She said it demands a national strategy that encourages cooperation and training among federal, state and local authorities, and an aggressive education campaign for seniors, she said.

 

There are signs of action:

• The Elder Justice Coordinating Council, a group of high-ranking officials from various federal agencies, is working to come up with ways to improve coordination to combat elder fraud.

• Lawmakers from Vermont and Florida this week introduced a bipartisan bill that would start an office at the Federal Trade Commission to alert consumers to new scams and ensure that fraud complaints “are quickly connected to the appropriate state and local law enforcement agency.”

• Officials in Jamaica promised Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, last month that they will extradite scammers who use the false promise of lottery winnings to cheat seniors out of their savings.

Full Article and Source:
Exploitation of Seniors Costs Them $3B a Year

How To Prevent Financial Abuse of the Elderly

Elder financial abuse is an expensive drain on the U.S. economy. A study of media reports from April to June 2010 "estimated that financial exploitation cost older adults at least $2.9 billion" that year, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office, or GAO. According to the report: "The money that older adults lose in these cases is rarely recovered, and this loss can undermine both the health of older adults and their ability to support and care for themselves."

That often means that taxpayers end up footing the bill for housing and medical care once an exploited senior has been drained of his or her assets. In fact, the report says that in 80 cases involving Utah's elderly, that state's Medicaid program could pony up about $900,000 in Medicaid costs alone.

The GAO report points out that unless law enforcement, the courts and adult protective services get better at protecting the assets of older adults, this country could see a sharp increase in the amount of public dollars replacing private funds that are illegally drained from their estates. And as the senior population increases, those numbers will only continue to climb. Certified Fraud Examiner Steve Lee says that "pre-grave robbing" -- which often goes unreported -- is an issue frequently encountered by private investigators, specialists in elder care law and colleagues.

Tom Fields' personal experience has led him to crusade for more effective legislation targeting elder financial abuse. "There is a clear lack of protection under current laws and legislation," says Fields, who is from Mentor, Ohio. He believes that in addition to current law being insufficient, law enforcement often has little idea of how to handle these cases.

"It's true that police reaction to cases of elder financial abuse varies widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and there is little crime-specific training available to them. Many jurisdictions treat these cases as civil, rather than criminal, cases, leaving families to struggle with stopping the siphoning of an elderly person's assets via a sluggish court system.

Full Article and Source:
How to Prevent Financial Abuse of Elderly Parents

GAO: National Strategy Needed to Effectively Combat Elder Financial Exploitation

Why GAO Did This Study

Elder financial exploitation is the illegal or improper use of an older adult’s funds or property. It has been described as an epidemic with society-wide repercussions. While combating elder financial exploitation is largely the responsibility of state and local social service, criminal justice, and consumer protection agencies, the federal government has a role to play in this area as well. GAO was asked to review issues related to elder financial exploitation. This report describes the challenges states face in (1) preventing and (2) responding to elder financial exploitation, as well as the actions some federal agencies have taken to help states address these challenges.

To obtain this information, GAO interviewed state and local social service, criminal justice, and consumer protection officials in California, Illinois, New York, and Pennsylvania—states with large elderly populations; officials in seven federal agencies; and various elder abuse experts. GAO also analyzed federal strategic plans and other documents and reviewed relevant research, federal laws and regulations, and state laws.

Source:
U.S. GAO - Elder Justice: National Strategy Needed to Effectively Combat Elderly Financial Exploitation

READ the GAO Report

Banks Can Help Defend Elderly Against Scams

Banks and other financial institutions are an important line of defense against scammers seeking to defraud the elderly, but too often tellers and branch managers are not trained to recognize the warning signs, says a Government Accountability Office report issued Thursday.

The study, which looked at programs aimed at fighting fraud that targets the elderly in California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New York, said that out of misguided concern they might breach federal privacy laws, banks and other financial institutions are sometimes reluctant to share information with agencies that work to protect older people from financial crimes.

"Banks are well-positioned to recognize, report, and provide evidence supporting investigations," said Kay E. Brown, director of Education, Workforce, and Income Security at the GAO. "However, many social-services and law enforcement officials we spoke with indicated banks do not always recognize and report exploitation or provide evidence needed to investigate it."

The report was released at the outset of a hearing Thursday before the Senate Special Committee on Aging in Washington on efforts nationally to combat elder financial abuse.

It comes one year after the indictment of Philadelphia lawyer Michael Kwasnik by a New Jersey state grand jury on charges of stealing $1.1 million from a Cherry Hill widow who had hired him for estate planning and to manage her money.

Full Article and Source:
Banks Can Help Defend Elderly Against Scams

GAO Releases Guardianship Study Report

Some court-appointed guardians for incapacitated seniors are not screened before they're appointed, and many are not monitored by the courts after they've taken over the affairs of their charges, resulting in hundreds of allegations of abuse, a federal probe found.

An investigation by the Government Accountability Office found allegations of abuse by legal guardians in 45 states and the District of Columbia, according to an advance copy of the report obtained by CNN. The report is scheduled to be released Wednesday.

In 20 cases studied by the office in which criminal or civil penalties resulted, investigators found that guardians stole at least $5.4 million in assets from 158 victims, the report said. In some instances, these same guardians abused or physically neglected the people they were supposed to help and protect.

In six of the 20 cases examined, the courts failed to screen guardians before giving them control over the financial affairs and care of their wards, the federal agency found. In one case in Missouri, a former taxi driver and convicted bank robber was appointed the legal guardian of a wealthy customer who had no family. As the elderly man developed Alzheimer's disease, his guardian stole more than $640,000 from him, writing checks out of the victim's estate to pay for exotic dancers and a new Hummer, court records show.

In Arizona, an 80-year-old woman's niece was appointed guardian of her wealth and well-being, despite having declared bankruptcy twice and being arrested numerous times for writing bad checks, according to court documents cited in the GAO probe. The elderly woman's attorney had objected to the appointment, saying the two were not close, but the court disregarded the protest. In the end, the niece misappropriated more than $150,000 from her aunt's estate, court records show.

A certified professional guardian failed to visit one of her wards for eight months, according to documents from a case in the state of Washington. The same guardian was then appointed to oversee another elderly person's estate, despite having $87,000 in tax liens filed against her.

Courts failed to oversee the conduct of appointed guardians in 12 of the 20 cases studied in the federal investigation, therefore allowing the abuse and financial exploitation to continue unobserved, sometimes for years, the federal report said.

It cited the case of a couple in Kansas who ran an unlicensed group home for mentally ill adults. The husband became the guardian of a 50-year-old female patient, allowing the couple to steal $250,000 from the woman, court documents show.

"In addition, they forced her and other residents to perform sexual acts for almost two decades as part of the fraudulent therapy treatment that they billed to Medicare, a federal court and jury found," according to the federal report.

The abuse was discovered when children on a school bus reported seeing naked people working on the farm, the GAO report said.

"At the husband's sentencing, the judge compared conditions at the house to those of a third world prison, and concluded at the wife's sentencing that '...but for the sighting by the children on the school bus, I am firmly convinced that [the group home] would be in business today,'" the report said.

Federal investigators also tested guardian certification required in a handful of states. To test to see whether this certification process would deter criminal-minded guardians from entering the system, investigators applied for the certification in Illinois, Nevada, New York and North Carolina. None of these states checked the undercover investigators' credit, nor did they validate their Social Security numbers to confirm their identities.

The GAO report was requested by the Senate Special Committee on Aging, chaired by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wisconsin. The committee says its next steps will be to consider federal legislation that will help state court systems improve their training of guardians, judges and legal personnel who handle adult guardianship cases.

The committee is also considering legislation that would help reduce fraud by unscrupulous guardians who receive the Social Security and veterans' benefits of incapacitated beneficiaries.

Note: This article is shown in its entirety:
Source:
Probe Shows Court-Appointed Guardians Often Not Screened or Monitored,by Jen Christensen, CNN

See Also:
Read the GAO Report: GUARDIANSHIPS: Cases of Financial Exploitation, Neglect, and Abuse of Seniors