VA: Initiative Places Medicaid Recipients Back Home

When Linda Archie moved into a Virginia Beach nursing home five years ago, she thought her days of being independent were over.

Archie, 71, is paralyzed on one side of her body because of brain aneurysms. She had to get used to sharing a room, eating and sleeping according to schedule, and putting up with the assumption that "I wasn't right up here," she said, tapping her head.

That's where they were wrong.

In 2009, someone showed up at her bedside with a question: Did she want to move out?

She did.

"I felt like I had my life back," said Archie, who's been living in an apartment for the past two years.

It's a question required by the government to be asked of nursing home residents at least four times a year, and it's bolstered by a federal initiative called "Money Follows the Person" that helps people on Medicaid move out of long-term care facilities.

Medicaid, the joint state-federal insurance for low-income families and the disabled, has come under intense pressure to control spiraling costs.

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Initiative Places Medicaid Recipients Back Home

Former Lawyer Accused of Stealing From Clients, Including Murdered Children's Fund

A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted a former Independence attorney for allegedly stealing nearly $650,000 from three clients, including a memorial fund set up in 2007 for two murdered children.

The Porter children were killed by their father in 2004 in a case that captured national attention.

Harley Kent Desselle, 61, of Raytown, was charged in the six-count indictment with wire fraud, bank fraud, bankruptcy fraud and making a false oath in a bankruptcy case, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Kansas City announced.

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Former Independence Lawyer Accused of Stealing From Clients, Including Murdered Children's Fund

Judge's Frustrations Lead to Proposal, Outcry From Advocates

One of Hartford Probate Judge Robert K. Killian Jr.'s frequent "customers" is an elderly woman whose mental illness gives her delusions that there are dangerous people living in her cellar. When she's not taking her medication, she calls police, who come and reassure her. Every few times, they take her to be examined, and she ends up getting committed to a hospital.

Killian worries she'll end up losing her home.

It's a cycle that the judge says he sees too often: people with severe mental illnesses not taking their medications when they're at home, leading to behavior that lands them in the hospital involuntarily, or in jail. While there, they don't receive disability benefits and fall behind on their rent, eventually getting evicted and becoming homeless, losing one of the keys to stability in the community.

"I'm seeing some of these people three or four times a year for commitments," Killian said. "We spend an awful lot of time trying to find housing for discharged patients from mental hospitals ... And I hate a system that forces them to lose it."

Killian wants Connecticut to follow the lead of the majority of other states by allowing for people with psychiatric disabilities to be medicated, even if they object, while they're in the community, if remaining unmedicated would leave them or others at risk of harm. He believes the proposal, which would allow for up to 120 days of forcible medication, would offer a chance for people to become stabilized and potentially choose to take the medications, making them more likely to avoid the cycle that brings them back to the hospital.

The concept, part of a bill pending before the legislature's Judiciary Committee, is vehemently opposed by advocates for people with mental illness, who say it could undermine efforts to engage people in treatment and would go against the state's efforts over the past decade to create a behavioral health system that emphasizes clients' choices and participation in their own treatment.

Even Killian acknowledged that it's "a reach by Connecticut standards."

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Judge's Frustrations Lead to Proposal, Outcry From Advocates

Is Facebook Part of Your Estate?

MPs and lawyers in the United States are considering proposals to require Facebook and other social networks to grant access to loved ones when a family member dies, essentially making the site contents part of a person's digital estate.

The issue is growing increasingly important as people record more thoughts and experiences online and as more disputes break out over the material.

When Karen Williams' son died in a motorcycle crash, the Oregon woman turned to his Facebook account in hopes of learning more about the young man she had lost.

Williams found his password and emailed the company, asking administrators to maintain 22-year-old Loren Williams' account so she could pore through his posts and comments by his friends.

But within two hours, she said, Facebook changed the password, blocking her efforts.

She ultimately got back into her son's account, but it took a lawsuit and a two-year legal battle that ended with Facebook granting her 10 months of access before her son's page was removed.

Nebraska is reviewing legislation modelled on a law in Oklahoma, which last year became the first state to take action.

"Mementos, shoeboxes with photos. That, we knew how to distribute once someone passed away," said Ryan Kiesel, a former legislator who wrote the Oklahoma law.

"We wanted to get state law and attorneys to begin thinking about the digital estate."

Under Facebook's current policy, deaths can be reported in an online form. When the site learns of a death, it puts that person's account in a memorialized state.

Certain information is removed, and privacy is restricted to friends only. The profile and wall are left up so friends and loved ones can make posts in remembrance.

Facebook will provide the estate of the deceased with a download of the account data "if prior consent is obtained from or decreed by the deceased or mandated by law".

If a close relative asks that a profile be removed, Facebook will honour that request, too.

Like the Oklahoma law, the Nebraska bill will allow friends or relatives to take control of social media accounts if the deceased person lives in the state.

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Is Facebook Part of Your Estate?

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The Astor Settlement: Anthony Marshall’s Friends and Family React

As the only child of New York’s beloved white-gloved philanthropist Brooke Astor, Anthony Marshall spent years preoccupied with how much he would inherit from his mother, who eventually died at age 105 in 2007. He envisioned a life in which he and his much younger third wife, Charlene, would not only live well but also have the pleasure of passing out the tens of millions left behind by his stepfather Vincent Astor, wielding clout on boards like the Metropolitan Museum.

But on Wednesday, Marshall, who was convicted three years ago of defrauding his mother’s estate, agreed to accept a settlement of a relatively paltry (for him) $14.4 million. Not only is this less than half of the riches that he expected, but the 87-year-old former ambassador also gave up all rights to distribute his mother’s charitable legacy. Since the four law firms that handled his criminal trial and probate fight have filed judgments totaling $11.6 million against him, he will not be awash in cash. “Mr. Marshall is pleased that a settlement has been reached,” his longtime lawyer Kenneth Warner wrote in a statement. “He is almost 88 years old and much prefers closure to an expensive and protracted litigation over his mother’s estate.”

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The Astor Settlement: Anthony Marshall’s Friends and Family React

Senators Press for Solution to Painkiller, Antipsychotic Abuses

Fearing an "epidemic" of death and defects from the illegal use and improper prescribing of painkilling and antipsychotic drugs, senators Thursday pressed a panel of doctors and health-care officials about how to stop the problem.

"It is tragic, it is sad, it is needless, it is fraudulent, it is horrible," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D.,W.Va), chairman of the Finance subcommittee on health. "And it is costing so much money that could be spent elsewhere."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention used the term epidemic in the fall in reporting that deaths from overdoses of painkillers had more than tripled in the last decade and surpassed heroin and cocaine deaths combined. State and federal authorities have tried to arrest those running so-called pill mills, at which painkillers are sold illegally.

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Senators Press for Solution to Painkiller, Antipsychotic Abuses

CA Prosecutor Admits Not Proving Agent Knew Client Had Dementia

The agent who was convicted of theft for selling an annuity to a woman with dementia was never proven to have known the client was impaired, according to the prosecutor in the case.

Dementia was a central element in the case that led to the felony theft conviction of Glenn A. Neasham, an annuity producer in northern California. He said he was not aware his 83-year-old client had dementia or Alzheimer’s when he sold her an Allianz MasterDex 10 indexed annuity in 2008. Two of his assistants also testified that they did not see signs of dementia.

The prosecutor argued that the client, Fran Schuber, had been diagnosed with dementia in 2004 and was not capable of consent in the purchase of the $175,000 annuity, which was approved in California for sale to people up to 85.

After the verdict, Lake County Deputy District Attorney Rachel Abelson said in a court filing that there was evidence that Neasham knew Schuber could not provide consent for the sale.

“There was sufficient evidence presented to show that Fran Schuber was not capable of consenting to the transaction in question and evidence showed that he [Neasham] knew that at the time of the evidence,” according to the prosecutor’s motion opposing Neasham’s request for a new trial.

But in an interview with InsuranceNewsNet, Abelson said she was not able to show that in court.

“Not necessarily that he knew that she had Alzheimer's or dementia, I couldn't necessarily prove that,” Abelson said. “The son told him, but we couldn't really pinpoint the time. It might have been at the transaction. Of course, I think he [Neasham] denies that he ever knew that she had this diagnosis.”

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Prosecutor Admits Not Proving Agent Knew Client Had Dementia

Reimbursements to Victims of Lawyer Theft Bring Fiscal Year Total to Nearly Half a Million Dollars

At its final meeting of fiscal year 2012, the Wisconsin Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection Committee approved $35,790 in reimbursements to 11 victims of lawyer theft. The committee considered 26 claims, denied 12 claims, and deferred three to its Nov. 9 meeting. The dollar amount sought for the deferred claims totals $9,875.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court established the fund in 1981 to reimburse people who lost money through dishonest acts of Wisconsin attorneys. Reimbursement decisions are made at the discretion of the committee, which meets three times a year.

In this fiscal year (July 1, 2011 – June 30, 2012), the fund approved $463,421 to 31 victims of 16 lawyers. Since its inception in 1981, the fund has approved $5.1 million involving 710 claims and 160 attorneys.

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Reimbursements to Victims of Lawyer Theft Bring Fiscal Year Total to Nearly Half a Million Dollars

AL: Madison Co. Judges Seek Changes in Court Operating Procedure

Madison County's judges have asked the local legislative delegation to pass a law expanding their oversight of local court operations.

The proposed change would put the court administrator's office under the supervision of the judges and would reduce the role of Circuit Court Clerk Jane Smith, who pleaded guilty to federal misdemeanor computer charges last week. Diana Bullard is the court administrator.

Presiding Circuit Court Judge Karen Hall said the primary change is shifting supervision of the court administrator from the clerk's office to the judges.

"In February of this year, when the issues related to the Alabama Administrative Office of Courts and Jane Smith were brought to our attention," she said, "the judges of this circuit realized that the management of the courts and the management of the Circuit Clerk's Office needed to be more clearly defined n order for the court system to best serve the citizens of Madison County.

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Madison County Judges Seek Changes in Court Operating Procedure