It is time for reform!
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Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Petition: Remove Absolute Judicial Immunity
For too long the Judicial community has enjoyed and misused Judicial Immunity.
It is time for reform!
SIGN the petition!
It is time for reform!
SIGN the petition!
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Pennsylvania: When a Guardian Decides on Life or Death
But Carter, who had a mental illness in addition to renal disease and frequently believed dialysis was a ploy, refused.
Carter died June 1, but a disagreement over her care continues. Mr. McGrath demanded that the state review Carter's death, saying her court-appointed guardian, Distinctive Human Services of Cambria County, agreed to let her cease treatment when it should have worked harder to keep her alive.
"This is about a human life that was terminated prematurely," he said in a Dec. 20 email to Mark Knouse, special adviser to Public Welfare Secretary Beverly Mackereth. When Carter consented to dialysis, Mr. McGrath said, she was energetic enough to walk into town a mile away.
Carter's story is a window on the complex interplay of physical- and mental-health care and on the challenges of guardianship, which can involve making life-or-death decisions for people unable to look after themselves. Kim Grier, president of the Centre County-based National Guardianship Association, said guardians can do only so much when clients refuse care.
"Guardianship does not give the guardian the authority to force somebody to do something they don't want to do," she said. "Guardianship does not remove free will from a person."
Full Article and Source:
When a Guardian Decides on Life or Death
Multiple Arrests Made After Investigation of "Loving Care Senior Citizen Home" in Georgia
New details have emerged about the poor conditions inside a Columbus senior care facility.
The Facility Director of Loving Care Senior Citizen Home was arrested on Dec. 4 on multiple charges. According to officials, Sheryl Drakeford willingly exploited disabled adults, elderly persons, or residents at the facility. Three others connected to the institution were arrested as well.
This was found during an inspection conducted by the Georgia Department of Community Health to verify if the facility met state requirements.
Two months prior to the arrests, allegations of human trafficking and sexual exploitation emerged after healthcare workers Marcus and KaShonda Miles were arrested.
Columbus Police began investigating the facility with agents from the FBI, Georgia Healthcare Facility Regulation Division, and other officials after learning that the licensed care facility was allegedly sending patients to unlicensed group homes. According to officials, Drakeford would take some elderly and disabled adults into her own home because the facility was overcrowded. Some patients slept on couches or bathroom floors due to lack of living space.
The "more obnoxious and troubling" patients" were sent to unlicensed facilities with even worse conditions. They would endure both physical cruelty and sexual abuse.
Patients were not given enough food to eat, and some food that was found in the facility was expired or exposed. Some bags of food were covered in bugs and roach feces.
Full Article, Video, and Source:
Multiple Arrests Made After Investigation At Columbus Senior Care Center
This was found during an inspection conducted by the Georgia Department of Community Health to verify if the facility met state requirements.
Two months prior to the arrests, allegations of human trafficking and sexual exploitation emerged after healthcare workers Marcus and KaShonda Miles were arrested.
Columbus Police began investigating the facility with agents from the FBI, Georgia Healthcare Facility Regulation Division, and other officials after learning that the licensed care facility was allegedly sending patients to unlicensed group homes. According to officials, Drakeford would take some elderly and disabled adults into her own home because the facility was overcrowded. Some patients slept on couches or bathroom floors due to lack of living space.
The "more obnoxious and troubling" patients" were sent to unlicensed facilities with even worse conditions. They would endure both physical cruelty and sexual abuse.
Patients were not given enough food to eat, and some food that was found in the facility was expired or exposed. Some bags of food were covered in bugs and roach feces.
Full Article, Video, and Source:
Multiple Arrests Made After Investigation At Columbus Senior Care Center
Monday, February 3, 2014
Nebraska DHHS Once Again in Hot Seat After State Audit Finds Issues in Elderly, Disabled Assistance Programs
State Auditor Mike Foley made the announcement that assistance programs run by the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services for the elderly, blind or disabled wasted millions of taxpayer dollars.
He added that some of the issues are criminal in nature as well.
The problem programs examined in the report are the Assistance to the Aged, Blind or Disabled program and the State Disability Program, which use nearly $15 million in state tax dollars each year.
The programs provide cash payments to qualified persons with little or no income for basic life needs, such as food, clothing, shelter and payments for medical expenses. Around 6,000 Nebraskans participate in the programs.
Foley says the audit team found that in 36 percent of the randomly selected cases, DHHS was making cash payments for basic living expenses or medical payments that were unreasonable or in direct violation of state law or regulations.
An example given in Foley's statement included a payment of $645 for "living expenses" to a convicted felon who was at the time incarcerated in the State Penitentiary.
"Once again, the citizens of Nebraska have seen their hard-earned tax dollars squandered by the State's largest agency of government," shared Foley in his statement. "Clearly, the people who pay the bills have been disserved again."
Auditors also found that some disabled people continued to receive payments through the AABD program even after medical evaluations revealed they were no longer eligible for assistance.
The audit found hundred of thousands of dollars were paid out to individuals who wrongly had their applications approved by DHHS workers.
An investigation has been launched against Judith Widener, who authorities believe took hundreds of thousands of dollars from individuals to whom she was named a guardian.
Full Article and Source:
DHHS Once Again in Hot Seat After State Audit Finds Issues in Elderly, Disabled Assistance Programs
See Also:
Nebraska State Auditor: Guardian Fleeced State Wards
The Two Words That Cost Medicare Patients Thousands
New warning for everyone on Medicare : specifically, it is about
the words that appear on hospital forms and small differences in
the fine print that could mean thousands of dollars in payments down the line.
79-year-old M.J. is doing physical therapy after a bad spill
in September. She spent three days in the hospital getting the same
care as an in-patient but was not classified as one. Instead, her chart said she
was only UNDER OBSERVATION.
And here is what she didn't understand: that label, under observation, technically made her an out-patient and that means that Medicare won't care for her rehab in a nursing facility which costs $28,000.
79-year-old M.J. is doing physical therapy after a bad spill
in September. She spent three days in the hospital getting the same
care as an in-patient but was not classified as one. Instead, her chart said she
was only UNDER OBSERVATION.
"It was illogical; I had a broken leg, it didn't make sense
at all, what were they going to observe?"
And here is what she didn't understand: that label, under observation, technically made her an out-patient and that means that Medicare won't care for her rehab in a nursing facility which costs $28,000.
Full Report and Video:
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Tonight on T.S. Radio: Elder Law in New Mexico: Are We Heading in the Right Direction?
Marcia Southwick will return to the show to give a summary of the state of New Mexico, adult legislations for 2013. Marcia also publishes, Boomers Against Elder Abuse on Facebook. This group is growing each day and heading towards 35,000 members.
In response to the exposure of the corruptive practices now being exposed in probate and family courts, many interested “stakeholders”……such as Guardianship associations, the BAR association, and many in the medical complex are leaning on state legislatures to expand their death grip on the elder community, and to make legal the theft of estates, the stripping of rights and the willful ignoring of standing state statutes meant to protect the victims from the predators.
Some of these new laws seem to heading backwards, but a few are good.
Issues are things like Due process, the role of guardian ad litem, Mediation, guardian background checks, guardianship financial authority, ward’s rights–etc. There are maybe 5 or so states to highlight, including New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Idaho, and Nevada.
In New Mexico, insanity has taken over.
5:00 pm PST … 6:00 pm MST … 7:00 pm CST … 8:00pm EST
LISTEN live or listen to the archive later
See Also:
FaceBook: Boomers Against Elder Abuse
Facebook: Bendigo Banksters
Facebook: NASGA
Marti Oakley to guest on radio show today: How the Medical & Legal System Abuses Elders
On this episode we talk with Marti Oakley about how the medical and legal system is set up to take advantage of the elderly.
Marti is a political activist, elder advocate and publishes "The PPJ Gazette" (www.ppjg.me) on the web. Marti also been hosting her own radio show on Blogtalk for 3 1/2 years after being interviewed as a guest for several years on other internet and local AM/FM radio stations across the country.
In the past Marti was an OpEd columnist for the St. Cloud Times in Minnesota. Now, her articles and research have been picked up by several major sites especially those on the dangerous application of vaccines, issues within agriculture and now most especially, the organized crime rings operating in our family and probate courts and the hunting of our elderly with the intent of dispossessing them not only of their freedom and their lives, but most especially all of their assets.
1-3 CST......2-4 EST
LISTEN to the show live or listen to the archive later
Plans for Sweeping Change at CA Assisted Living Homes!
With more than a dozen bills making up a residential-care-facility reform package - their costs not yet determined - advocates calling for greater transparency and accountability say they feel confident the money needed to fix the Department of Social Services' Community Care Licensing Division will be there.
Those efforts will be aided by state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, who control the purse strings in each house as budget chairs. Both are authoring bills addressing residential-care concerns borne from last year's faulty closure of Valley Springs Manor in Castro Valley.
More than a dozen residents were left behind at the assisted- living facility after the state ordered the care home to be closed but did little to ensure that its elderly residents were transferred or cared for.
A cook and a janitor with no training in caring for the elderly stayed with the residents after caregivers and managers left. The two, working without pay, repeatedly called 911, saying the residents needed help. The owner of the facility had previous violations at a facility in Oakland.
Leno is planning to introduce a bill that bans assisted-living facilities from accepting new residents if serious health or safety violations have not been addressed or if there are unpaid fines. Other lawmakers have plans for bills that increase fines or require caregivers to have 40 hours of training, instead of 10 hours, before working with elderly residents.
Full Article and Source:
Plans for Sweeping Change At Assisted Living Homes
See Also:
CANHR.org
Missouri Coroner (Guardian) Accused of Spending $80K of Woman's (Ward's) Money
Perry County Coroner Herbert Miller is facing felony charges after he allegedly spent the money of a 94-year-old woman for his own use.
Miller was charged with financial exploitation of the elderly and theft after an investigation by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Service.
Court documents say Miller was appointed the woman's guardian in 2004. She went into a nursing home in 2008 with dementia and other disabilities.
Miller is accused of writing checks from the woman's account totaling $80,600. Investigators say the woman's bills at the nursing home weren't paid and she was denied Medicaid benefits, meaning she could be evicted.
Full Article and Source:
Missouri Coroner Accused of Spending $80,000 of Elderly Woman's Money
Court documents say Miller was appointed the woman's guardian in 2004. She went into a nursing home in 2008 with dementia and other disabilities.
Miller is accused of writing checks from the woman's account totaling $80,600. Investigators say the woman's bills at the nursing home weren't paid and she was denied Medicaid benefits, meaning she could be evicted.
Full Article and Source:
Missouri Coroner Accused of Spending $80,000 of Elderly Woman's Money
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