MONTPELIER -- The Vermont Senate is considering legislation that will give investigators access to financial and medical records in certain elder abuse cases.
Currently, a relative who has the power of attorney and is being investigated for elder abuse can refuse to turn over records.
In such cases, the senior citizen cannot give investigators with Adult Protective Services access to financial or medical information.
"Unfortunately there are cases of drug diversion or financial exploitation where this becomes a problem," said Barbara Prine, an attorney with Vermont Legal Aid's Senior Law Project.
"There are situations where someone is taking grandma's check book and signing her name, or a caretaker is taking the pain meds of a senior with diminished capacity," Prine said.
It can be hard to prove wrongdoing in these cases, or even launch an investigation without access to medical and financial records, she added.
A bill before the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, S.23, would allow investigators to subpoena relevant documents when the person suspected of exploiting a senior also has power-of-attorney.
Sen. Claire Ayer, D-Addison, chair of Health and Welfare, said her committee will ask for a suspension of the rules in order to vote on the bill next Tuesday.
Full Article & Source:
New Vermont law will give investigators new power to probe elderly abuse cases
State law cannot overcome federal HIPAA law on medical records.
ReplyDeleteAll well and good, but what about when the public guardianship program into which Adult Protective Services dumps this elderly person is equally unforthcoming about finances?
ReplyDeleteIn one single case in Virginia Beach, Adult Protective Services hand-picked a guardian ad litem who allowed Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia to dump an elderly lady (ironically a former APS worker) into a Scott Schuett adult home in direct violation of a court order. (Google Scott Schuett for the appalling details.)
Virginia Beach Adult Protective Services refused to turn over its records to this lady's attorney (an attorney ironically also hand-picked by APS), even going so far as to make the preposterous, fraudulent claim that the lady's attorney was no longer the lady's attorney the minute she, you guessed it, disagreed with Virginia Beach Adult Protective Services and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia.
Virginia Beach Adult Protective Services and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia refused to turn over APS and CCEVA documents to which this lady and her attorney were clearly entitled, refused to answer lawful discovery, blew off deadlines for the filing of answers to interrogatories and requests for production of documents, blew off deadlines to file an initial Inventory and Account of the estate and details of their spending with the Commissioner of Accounts, without even bothering to ask for an extension, and even defaulted on the answer to a lawsuit THEY filed over the documents dispute.
Then, Virginia Beach Adult Protective Services and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia tried to blow off a court hearing to get these issues resolved.
Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia allowed this lady's house to go into foreclosure, her daughter's funeral to go forward without the lady in attendance, and the lady's health insurance and life insurance to be cancelled, all while Catholic Charities continued to collect monthly fees from the lady's limited income after they had already been paid a guardianship fee by, you guessed, Virginia Beach Adult Protective Services.
When the dust settled, the judge ruled that the attorney remained counsel to this lady under clear statutory law, and Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia and Virginia Beach Adult Protective Services had to turn over the documents and financial records. No surprise there.
Even then, it turned out that Catholic Charities of Eastern Virginia continued to commit fraud, conspicuously omitting any records of a bank account with 13 bounced checks in a single month.
The corrupt city attorney, corrupt guardian ad litem, and corrupt social workers who committed this long-running fraud remain in business, no doubt victimizing more innocent elderly people.
So Vermont, this is all well and good, but you need to add to your law a provision that Adult Protective Services must turn over each and every record to the elderly person or his or her lawyer on request, no exceptions, no court order, no nonsense. And set a criminal and financial penalty levied against the individual social worker, guardian ad litem, and attorney for failure to do so.
Otherwise, you are just substituting abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation by Adult Protective Services for abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation by others.