Redkey Gordon P.C.

Denied Medicare Claim? What Now?

"If you get a claim denial, always contact your doctor or hospital to see if they can help you through the appeal," said Shirley Whitenack, president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and a partner with law firm Schenck, Price, Smith & King.

Larry Tocco retired last year from a job in the collections department of a credit union. After some medical treatment, he started receiving past-due notices from health care providers after his claims on a Medicare plan weren't paid. After several frustrating phone calls, Larry learned he was still on the active employee roll of the health insurance plan covering his former employer. As a result, his Medicare plan was considered secondary coverage.

A benefits manager from the credit union told him they sent the retirement paperwork, but the representatives with the Medicare provider said they didn't get it.

The Chicago Tribune has the full story in an article titled “Steps to take when disputing a denied health insurance claim.”

Although Larry’s bills were less than $400, he worried about what could happen if he suddenly had a major health issue before the fiasco was resolved and couldn't advocate for himself. Given that Larry worked in collections, he understood keenly that if the past-due bills ended up going to a collection agency, his personal credit rating could be damaged. Larry kept careful notes of conversations with the insurance company, his former employer, and his current Medicare provider. That's hugely important for getting to a faster resolution on customer service and billing issues, the article explained.

When these companies won't talk to each other, you can get stuck. Just the same, patients are better off in the complaint process if they have documentation, the article advises. Keep a calendar diary anytime a benefits, health insurance, or contractor dispute comes up: write down the name, title, and phone number of the person you speak with and the contents of the conversation. Experts say that there are all kinds of glitches that can lead people to not being properly enrolled in Medicare.

The issue has been straightened out, and Tocco has finally been removed from coverage.

"I never thought this was how I'd be spending my time" in retirement, Tocco said.

Talk with Robert A. Gordon of Redkey Gordon Law Corp, an attorney that is experienced with Medicare and senior issues.

Reference: Chicago Tribune (May 29, 2015) “Steps to take when disputing a denied health insurance claim”

Plan for Your Digital Estate with a Virtual Asset Instruction Letter

Portland attorney Victoria Blachly said people can avoid the personal, financial and in some cases legal headaches that come with losing access to their online accounts by creating a Virtual Asset Instruction Letter where they list their online accounts, the passwords they use to access each one, and instructions explaining what, if anything, should be done with the content each account holds.

What happens to all of your online accounts when you die? Will your loved ones be able to access them? If so, what should they do with those accounts? There is much to think about when it comes to your digital estate planning.

An article from The (Bend OR) Bulletin, “Estate planning in a digital world,”says that you can avoid personal, financial, and legal headaches by creating a Virtual Asset Instruction Letter.

A Virtual Asset Instruction Letter is a document in which you can list your online accounts and passwords, along with instructions explaining what should be done with the content each account holds. However, the article says there’s a catch. Even if they have permission people are breaking the law when they use someone else’s password to access their online accounts. There’s a 30-year-old federal statute that’s still on the books that makes it tough in an era of increasing online usage and information. The federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 threatens criminal penalties for people who access online information “without authorization” or in a manner that “exceeds authorized access.” But the legislation doesn’t define what either of these terms means.

The article notes that the same ambiguity exists in many online service providers’ Terms of Service Agreements. You know, the huge documents we just scroll through and check that we’ve read without really reading. These terms can mean someone who accesses someone else’s online accounts risks civil and criminal actions for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Folks in the Pacific Northwest are working on the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act through the Oregon Legislature during this year’s session. The UFADAA makes it clear the executor of a person’s estate, court-appointed guardian or conservator, or their trustee or another fiduciary has the authority to access the person’s online accounts to gather and distribute digital assets, prevent identity theft, and console loved ones with images and stories posted on social media.

Oregon’s UFADAA wouldn’t create a new law—but would instead update the state’s existing fiduciary codes to cover an individual’s digital assets. Similar bills are being considered by legislatures in Idaho, Nevada, Washington and 20 other states this year.

Talk to Robert A. Gordon of Redkey Gordon Law Corp, a seasoned estate planning attorney to see how digital assets are currently being treated in California.

Reference: The (Bend OR) Bulletin (May 29, 2015) “Estate planning in a digital world”

Women Have Important Estate Planning Considerations to Address

In the absence of a well-crafted estate plan, women can be affected more often and more directly than men.  According to www.forbes.com, women live longer than men, on average, and tend to marry older spouses; this makes women three times more likely as men to be widowed at age 65. 

With women commonly living longer than their male spouses, it is essential for women to have their financial and estate plans in order.

Northwest Herald’s article, “Home State Bank Emphasizes Estate Planning For Women,”says that a key aspect of estate planning is designating someone you trust to act on your behalf in financial and legal matters in the event you can't (even temporarily) due to illness or disability. Designate this person in a durable power of attorney.

This durable power of attorney is a separate estate planning document from a living will. It expresses your personal preferences about end-of-life care. Also, you need a health care proxy (or health care power of attorney), which authorizes someone to make medical decisions for you. If you don't have a will or living trust indicating who should receive your estate, remember that your state law will do this for you!

Talk to Robert A. Gordon of Redkey Gordon Law Corp, an experienced estate planning attorney to get all of the facts and to help you create these forms.

Reference: Northwest Herald (May 29, 2015) “Home State Bank Emphasizes Estate Planning For Women”

$200,000 Gift from Local Bar Owner Goes to Wisconsin’s Northland College

A bar owner who never attended college has left $200,000 to the alma mater of her best customers. Ida F. Meyer of Lake Placid, Fla., died March 22 at 103 years of age. “I might as well give it back to the College,” she told her attorney Michael A. Rider, during her estate planning. “Those kids were good to us.”

A Northland News article, “Former bar owner bequests $200,000 to Northland College,”reported how students from that era remember a fastidious, kind couple who didn’t tolerate loud or obnoxious behavior. They ate foot-long hotdogs and brick cheese sandwiches on rye bread, and drank dime taps. They played hits on the jukebox.

Cabbie’s is credited with many chance meetings, first dates and long-lasting marriages. “I met my sweet wife of 48 years in the fall of 1964 on a Friday night at Cabbie’s,” said Northland College alumnus Tom Bogess in the article.

“I bought her a beer, we danced and the rest is history.”

Ida was born in North Dakota and she married Casper Meyer in 1935. They owned several Wisconsin businesses, including Cabbie’s Tap. Casper died in 1991 and Ida moved to Florida. Neither she nor her husband attended college, and they never had children of their own. Northland College says that it has started the Ida and Cabbie's Scholarship in honor of Ida's generous gift.

Robert A. Gordon of Redkey Gordon Law Corp, an estate planning attorney can help you leave property or a gift to your favorite school or charity.

Reference: Northland News (May 28, 2015) “Former bar owner bequests $200,000 to Northland College”

Really? Captain obvious

http://blogs.findlaw.com/legally_weird/2012/05/naked-unicyclist-arrested-for-distracting-tx-drivers.html

Stats on Causes of Death in America

See where boating accidents, law enforcement intervention, firearms and other unexpected events caused deaths at abnormally high rates. Lesson? Get your estate planning in order; you never know when your time will come to an end.

Death comes in many variations. It’s hard to know how one will meet their own demise.

A recent issue of Time magazine discussed cause of death statistics in an article titled, "The Surprising Ways Americans Die in all 50 States."

For example, in Michigan, coronary artery disease killed 35 out of 100,000 people, while nationwide only 20 of 100,000 people die from this.

The article says that flu mortality rate was abnormally high in colder states like Maine, Wyoming and the Dakotas, but the coldest state–Alaska–had unusually high deaths from boat and motor transportation accidents. HIV killed 35 out of 100,000 people in DC, which is more than eight times the national rate of four.

Included in the last category are thousands of deaths of unknown cause, listed by the CDC as “unspecified events of undetermined intent.” These were unusually common in six states, like Maryland with 6,588 mystery deaths.

You can take at least some of the mystery out of this by planning your estate with Robert A. Gordon of Redkey Gordon Law Corp, an experienced estate planning attorney. Although we don’t know exactly how the end will come, you can give some comfort to your loved ones in knowing that they will be cared for and that your assets will be distributed according to your wishes.

Reference: Time (May 18, 2015) "The Surprising Ways Americans Die in all 50 States"

Failing to Update Beneficiaries May Benefit Your Ex

Fran had just learned that her deceased husband Ed’s life insurance proceeds were going to be paid to his ex-wife Sally. As Fran found out from her lawyer, beneficiary designations can be the trump card of estate planning.

You heard that right. The ex-wife Sally will get the life insurance proceeds. It doesn’t matter what the will says in these circumstances. With certain financial instruments the beneficiary designations have authority to control the asset disposition regardless of other provisions.

A recent WMUR article, titled “Money Matters: The trump card of estate planning,”sets out a handful of good pointers to remember.

As we’ve just read, assigning and frequently reviewing your beneficiary designations is a critical part of estate planning. Those assets whose beneficiary designations “trump” any wills or estate directives include the following:

• Individual and group life insurance
• Traditional and Roth IRA’s
• Qualified retirement plans, such as 401k’s
• ESOPs (Employee Stock Option Plans)
• Contractual rights under deferred compensation plans
• Employment contracts

Remember that making a change in your will or your trust doesn’t automatically make changes to all of your assets listed in those documents. Talk with an estate planning lawyer to cover all of the bases. You want to make sure that your beneficiary designations are updated and in sync with your overall estate planning strategy and its documents.

Here are a couple of other thoughts: always name primary and contingent beneficiaries, and when you make any changes to these documents, get a confirmation from the receiving institution that the changes were actually made and reflect your wishes.

Finally, retain copies of your beneficiary documentation, as it might be some time before these materials are needed. You want to make sure that the paperwork can be found easily.

Again, it’s wise to speak to Robert A. Gordon of Redkey Gordon Law Corp, an experienced estate planning attorney with your questions regarding beneficiary designations and to get sound advice on your estate planning.

Reference: WMUR (May 21, 2015) “Money Matters: The trump card of estate planning”

Senate Approves Bill to Ensure Veterans Have Easier Access to Medical Care

The bill relaxes a rule that makes getting specialized care from local doctors difficult for some veterans in rural areas.

The Associated Press investigated this new legislation in a recent article titled “Senate tweaks health law to boost specialized care.”

If this bill is passed by the House and signed into law, it would mark the second change in 2015 to the so-called “40-mile Rule.” That designation is the boundary requiring veterans to demonstrate that they live at least 40 miles from a VA health site in order to obtain private care.

Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., thinks that the VA was deliberately interpreting the 40-mile Rule to deny veterans needed care; however, the VA recently tweaked the rule. It now measures the 40 miles by driving distance, rather than in a straight line. Moran, who’s the sponsor of the Senate bill, said it "puts the veteran first and provides the fix the VA says they need to make certain that veterans are not dismissed or forgotten just because of where they live."

Lawmakers have been working to make changes in recent months. Many far fewer veterans were receiving treatment offered under the Veterans Choice law than were originally anticipated. As you know, this law was adopted last year after the VA scandal over long wait times for veterans seeking health care and falsified records covering up delays.

Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, was quoted by the AP as saying that the approved change would "ensure veterans can receive care outside of the VA health care system if they face geographic or travel burdens, have a medical condition that would impact their ability to travel or for other factors that may be determined by the VA."

VA Benefit paperwork can sometimes be hard to figure out. Contact Robert A. Gordon of Redkey Gordon Law Corp, an experienced elder law attorney who understands these issues and can help.

Reference: The Associated Press (May 22, 2015) “Senate tweaks health law to boost specialized care”

Life Event Checklist for Updating Your Estate Plan

At some point, everyone needs to consider estate planning. It’s time to create an up-to-date estate plan when you experience one of these life events.

Think estate planning isn’t for you? Think again! And it’s not just a one-time deal; changes in your life should result in changes to your plan, so be ready to make some updates.

The Richland Source notes in a recent article, titled “Do you need an estate plan?”, that it’s time to create an up-to-date estate plan when you have one of these life events:

• Marriage, divorce, or you re-marry;
• You adopt or have a child;
• There’s substantial change in the value of your assets;
• You and your family move to another state;
• You want to change the executor or administrator of your will;
• An heir dies;
• An appointed guardian is no longer able to assume those responsibilities;
• New estate planning or tax laws become effective;
• You’d like to make a bequest in your will to a charity or organization;
• You have more than $1 million in assets; or
• You have a business you’d like to protect.

The article emphasizes that a successful estate plan will have a will, power of attorney, a plan for minors (such as trusts and guardianship designations), life insurance, other trusts, and plans for charitable giving.

Get in touch with Robert A. Gordon of Redkey Gordon Law Corp, an experienced estate planning attorney to help with creating (or updating) your estate plan right away!

Reference: Richland Source (Mansfield, OH) (May 20, 2015) “Do you need an estate plan?”

Retiring Soon? 5 Pre-Retirement To-Do’s

Don’t wait until the very last minute to make sure you are prepared, says Michael H. Milarski, a partner and senior financial advisor with Signature Financial Planning.

Are you sure you’re ready to retire? You may have a few items to address before your golden years can begin.

A recent Fox Business article, titled “5 Things to Do Now if You’re Near Retirement,”says that these are the five important things to work on in the five years before you retire.

Calculate Your Post-Retirement Expenses. In addition to calculating how your monthly bills will line up with your projected income, you also should include all of the things you want to do once you stop working. Things like travel, hobbies, and spending more time with family are probably on many future retirees’ lists. Many things like these will cost money.

Create a Plan to Avoid a Potential Lapse in Medical Coverage. Medical insurance is critical and only becomes more important as we get older. The Affordable Care Act dictates that if you lose your coverage for any reason other than a qualifying event, you won’t be able to get health insurance until the next annual open enrollment period. The article cautions you to make sure you don’t have a gap in medical coverage between your date of planned retirement and when you become eligible for Medicare.

Create a Plan for When to Tap Into Your Retirement Income. Calculate how and when to access your retirement savings to create an income stream that will last the rest of your life.  This will include examining your monthly retirement budget and funding that budget with your available retirement income sources, such as Social Security, pension, retirement investments, savings, and so on. The article suggests you develop a plan to initiate all of your retirement income sources in the best possible way.

Update All of Your Estate Planning Documents. A will, living will, and power of attorney are essential and must be reviewed for changes in your situation, like if your children are now grown and/or you have accumulated more assets. An attorney can help create or update your estate plan so that your assets pass to your beneficiaries exactly as you want and in the most tax-efficient manner possible.

Look into Tinkering with Your Life Insurance Portfolio. When your kids are grown with families of their own, there may be less of a need to continue paying your life insurance premiums. The article says that if you have an existing life insurance portfolio that was created some time ago, make sure it’s still the right solution for you and your family.

Speak with Robert A. Gordon of Redkey Gordon Law Corp, an estate planning attorney to get more help with your retirement plans.

Reference: Fox Business (May 22, 2015) “5 Things to Do Now if You’re Near Retirement”