This article originally appeared in the June 2015 issue of the TaxStringer. It is reprinted with permission from the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants. Benjamin Franklin is famously quoted for saying, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” Now, baby boomers can add a [...]

As a community we need to lobby for a delay in implementation of passive enrollment into FIDA plans.  I am hearing over and over again from Medicaid beneficiaries receiving the letter that they have NO idea what they are being asked to do or why.  Either they do nothing or call Medicare (as required by the notice) and cannot get through (which happens most [...]

I am proud to announce that the Weiss Law Group is a finalist in the New York Enterprise Report’s “Best Accountants & Attorneys Award” in the Service Area Firm Award category. We help people through with these difficult emotional, personal & family crises. So, I am eternally grateful and honored to be recognized for [...]

The cost of nursing home care is outrageous and getting worse! A recent article in the New York Times provides a good illustration of this exponentially increasing cost. The amount that the government pays a nursing home for caring for a Medicaid beneficiary is the floor. In accordance with the rates for 2015 that [...]

As much as you might like, we can’t ignore clients paying mom/dad’s home health aides “off the books.” Trusted advisors might be inclined to let slide the comment: “Mom’s/Dad’s aide is being paid in cash (a.k.a. “off the books”) but you do so at your peril.” Clients need to be told that times are [...]

It recently happened to a friend of mine. One day his wife is fine, the next she is chronically ill and they are afraid they might not be able to stay in their home. They are not poor; rather, they are middle to upper middle class, have assets that are tied up and mounting [...]

Kudos to the Governor and State Legislature! As of January 14, 2014 Governor Cuomo signed into law a requirement that hospitals notify Medicare/ Medicaid patients being treated in the E.R. on “observation status” that their benefits will be less than if they were admitted to a bed. The fact is that observation-status patients are [...]

I want to draw your attention to a subtle but pervasive issue – our failure as a society to acknowledge that people of a “certain age” and disability cannot see very well. Really?? It is simple. We require official information be translated in multiple languages but we don’t require that documents be written in [...]

In spite of being advised to stay away from this case I took it and we won! I took the case on the standard flat fee basis, knowing that the presumption of law was against us and that it would take an enormous amount of work to prove that Jr. had a legal right [...]