Tag Archives: Coronavirus

Nursing Home Residents Face Even Greater Barriers to Voting Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

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The coronavirus pandemic has forced nursing homes to place a number of restrictions on their residents. These constraints are having the unintended consequence of making it more difficult for nursing home residents to vote. Hundreds of thousands of nursing home and assisted living community residents could be disenfranchised.

Older Americans are some of the most reliable voters, but nursing home residents face challenges to voting even in normal times, and they are encountering even greater barriers this election season. In response to the coronavirus pandemic, nursing homes have locked down, prohibiting family and friends from visiting residents and residents from leaving the facilities. This means residents may not be able to leave to vote and also will not be able to have help from family members or organizations in obtaining and filling out mail-in ballots.

In past years, nursing homes and assisted living facilities often acted as polling places, but many of those are being moved due to the pandemic. In addition, nonpartisan organizations have historically been able to enter nursing homes to assist residents with their ballots, but it is unclear whether this will be allowed this year. North Carolina and Louisiana specifically prohibit nursing home staff from assisting residents with their ballots, but even in states that don’t explicitly prohibit it, overworked staff may not have the time to help residents.

While federal law requires nursing homes to protect their residents’ rights, including the right to vote, it is “a really open question to what extent people in long-term care institutions are going to be able to participate in our election in November,” says Nina Kohn, a law professor at Syracuse University who has studied facility residents’ voting-rights issues. Kohn warns that “we should be clear that there is tremendous reason to be concerned that nursing home residents will be . . . systematically disenfranchised in this election,”

How Will the Coronavirus Pandemic Affect Social Security?

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The coronavirus pandemic is having a profound effect on the current U.S. economy, and it may have a detrimental effect on Social Security’s long-term financial situation. High unemployment rates mean Social Security shortfalls could begin earlier than projected.

Social Security retirement benefits are financed primarily through dedicated payroll taxes paid by workers and their employers, with employees and employers splitting the tax equally. This money is put into a trust fund that is used to pay retiree benefits. The most recent report from the trustees of the Social Security trust fund is that the fund’s balance will reach zero in 2035. This is because more people are retiring than are working, so the program is paying out more in benefits than it is taking in. Additionally, seniors are living longer, so they receive benefits for a longer period of time. Once the fund runs out of money, it does not mean that benefits stop altogether. Instead, retirees’ benefits would be cut, unless Congress acts in the interim. According to the trustees’ projections, the fund’s income would be sufficient to pay retirees 77 percent of their total benefit.

With unemployment at record levels due to the pandemic, fewer employers and employees are paying payroll taxes into the trust fund. In addition, more workers may claim benefits early because they lost their jobs. President Trump issued an executive order deferring payroll taxes until the end of the year as a form of economic relief, which could negatively affect Social Security and Medicare funds.

Some experts believe that the pandemic could move up the depletion of the trust fund by two years, to 2033, if the COVID-19 economic collapse causes payroll taxes to drop by 20 percent for two years. Other experts argue that it could have a greater effect and deplete the fund by 2029. However, as the Social Security Administration Chief Actuary morbidly noted to Congress, this pandemic different from most recessions: the increased applications for benefits will be partially offset by increased deaths among seniors who were receiving benefits.

It remains to be seen exactly how much the pandemic affects the Social Security trust fund, but the experts agree that as soon as the pandemic ends, Congress should take steps to shore up the fund.

Nursing Homes Are Evicting Residents to Make Room for Coronavirus Patients

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Illegal evictions of Medicaid nursing home residents are nothing new, but the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating the problem, according to an investigation by the New York Times.

Some states have asked nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients in order to ease the burden on hospitals. Even as the virus has devastated nursing homes, some have been welcoming these patients, who earn facilities far more than do Medicaid patients. To make room for these more lucrative coronavirus patients, the Times found that thousands of Medicaid recipients have been “dumped” by nursing homes. Many of the residents were sent to homeless shelters.

Nursing homes make far more money from short-term Medicare residents than from Medicaid residents, especially since the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services changed the reimbursement formula last fall. Now, writes the Times, a nursing home can get at least $600 more a day from a Covid-19 patient than from other, longer-term residents. In other cases, it wasn’t about the money but simply pressure from states to accept Covid patients.

According to federal law, a nursing home can discharge a resident only if the resident’s health has improved, the facility cannot meet the resident’s needs, the health and safety of other residents is endangered, the resident has not paid after receiving notice, or the facility stops operating. In addition, a nursing home cannot discharge a resident without proper notice and planning. In general, the nursing home must provide written notice 30 days before discharge, though shorter notice is allowed in emergency situations. A discharge plan must ensure the resident has a safe place to go, preferably near family, and outline the care the resident will receive after discharge.

According to the New York Times, nursing homes have been discharging residents without proper notice or planning. Because long-term care ombudsmen have not been allowed into nursing homes, there has been less oversight of the process. Old and disabled residents have been sent to homeless shelters, rundown motels, and other unsafe facilities. The Times heard from 26 ombudsmen, from 18 states, who reported a total of more than 6,400 discharges during the pandemic, but this is likely an undercount. In New Mexico, all the residents of one nursing home were evicted to make room for coronavirus patients.

If you or a loved one are facing eviction, you have the right to fight the discharge. Contact your attorney to find out the steps to take.

Four Ways the Coronavirus Pandemic May Affect Long-Term Care Insurance

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The coronavirus pandemic has had a devastating impact on the elderly, particularly those in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. This has raised questions about how the virus has influenced the costs and provision of long-term care insurance, which covers care in facilities and sometimes at home as well.

If you have a long-term care insurance policy, you may wonder how it is affected by the pandemic. If you don’t have a policy, you may wonder if the pandemic will make it more difficult to get one. An article by US News and World Report, examines issues with long-term care insurance that have arisen in the last few months, including the following:

  • Qualifying for insurance. It is already more difficult to qualify for long-term care insurance the older you get. Because older individuals are at a higher risk for coronavirus, this can affect your long-term care application as well. Some insurers have been limiting applicants’ ages or putting additional restrictions on applicants who have been in contact with the virus. If you had a positive COVID-19 test, you may have to wait for three to six months before qualifying for insurance. These policies vary by company.
  • Premiums. Insurers can’t raise rates for customers due to individual circumstances. To raise rates, insurers must obtain approval from the state and raise them for the entire group. However, if you are considered high risk due to exposure to coronavirus, you may not qualify for the best rates when you first apply for long-term care insurance.
  • Moving out of a nursing home. If you have a policy and want to move out of a nursing home, you will need to check what your policy will pay for. Some policies pay for long-term care in a variety of settings, including home care, but others are more restrictive. On the plus side, you may be able to use your policy to reserve your bed, allowing you to keep your nursing home spot.
  • Home care. If you have a policy that was paying for home care, there may also be changes. Some home care workers are charging more for work during the pandemic, which could exceed your policy coverage. Another change may be to the number of people entering your home. You may want family to provide care, rather than an outside home health care worker. Unfortunately, most long-term care policies don’t pay for family members to provide care. However, if you aren’t using the insurance to pay for care, your coverage may last longer–depending on the policy.

There are lots of uncertainties regarding long-term care, insurance, and coronavirus.

Three Changes You May Want to Make to Your Estate Plan Now Due to the Pandemic

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You may need to reevaluate some elements of your estate plan in light of the coronavirus pandemic. There are unique aspects of this crisis that your current estate planning documents may not be suited to handle.

The language in some estate planning documents that is fine under normal conditions may cause additional problems for you and your loved ones if you fall ill during the pandemic. Look over the following documents to see if they may need updating in order to fulfill your wishes:

  • Living will. A living will is a document that you can use to give instructions regarding treatment if you become terminally ill or are in a persistent vegetative state and unable to communicate your instructions. The living will states under what conditions life-sustaining treatment should be terminated. Many living wills contain a prohibition on intubation, which can be used to prolong life, even in a vegetative state. However, in the case of Covid-19, intubation and placement on a ventilator can actually save a patient’s life (although many patients who are intubated still die). If your living will contains a blanket prohibition on intubation, you may want to rethink that.
  • Durable Power of Attorney. A power of attorney (POA) allows you to appoint an agent to act in your place with regard to financial matters. A POA can be either current or springing. A current POA takes effect immediately, usually with the understanding that it will not be used until and unless you become incapacitated. A “springing” POA only takes affect when you become incapacitated. The problem is that springing powers of attorney create a hurdle for the agent to get over to use the document. When presented with a springing power of attorney, a financial institution will require proof that the incapacity has occurred, often in the form of a letter from a doctor. In the current chaotic environment of the coronavirus pandemic, getting a letter from a doctor will be difficult, if not impossible. Requiring your agent under a power of attorney to seek out a doctor to get a certification of incapacity will only add to their tasks and delay their ability to act on your behalf.  Consider changing the POA so that it can take effect immediately if needed.
  • Health Care Proxy. A health care proxy allows you to appoint someone else to act as your agent for medical decisions. It will ensure that your medical treatment instructions are carried out. Without a health care proxy, your doctor may be required to provide you with medical treatment that you would have refused if you were able to do so. Usually, the person who is appointed to act as your agent would confer with the doctors in person. That will likely be impossible during the coronavirus pandemic because family members often are not allowed in the hospital with sick patients. You need to make sure your health care proxy contains a provision that expressly authorizes electronic communication with your agent.

Consult with your attorney to make sure these documents and your other estate planning documents express your wishes during this time.

Staying Connected to Family Members in a Nursing Home When Visits are Banned

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The spread of the coronavirus to nursing home residents has caused the federal government to direct nursing homes to restrict visitor access, and many assisted livingfacilities have done the same. While the move helps the residents stay healthy, it can also lead to social isolation and depression. Families are having to find new ways to stay in touch.

Nursing homes have been hit hard by the coronavirus. The Life Care Center of Kirkland, Washington near Seattle was one of the first clusters of coronavirus in the United States and is one of the deadliest, with at least 35 deaths associated with the facility. In response, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued guidance to all nursing homes, restricting all visitors, except for compassionate care in end-of-life situations; restricting all volunteers and nonessential personnel; and cancelling all group activities and communal dining. While these actions are necessary to prevent the spread of the virus, they can leave families worried and upset and residents feeling isolated and confused.

Families are taking varying tacks to keep in contact with their loved ones, many of whom don’t fully understand why their family is no longer visiting. Nursing homes are also helping to facilitate contact. Some options for keeping in touch, include the following:

  • Phone calls. Phone calls are still an option to be able to talk to your loved one.
  • Window visits. Families who are able to visit their loved one’s window can use that to have in-person visits. You can hold up signs and blow kisses. Talking on a cell phone or typing messages on it and holding them up to the window may be a way to have a conversation.
  • Facetime and Skype. Many nursing homes are facilitating video calls with families using platforms like Facetime or Skype. Some nursing homes have purchased additional iPads, while others have staff members going between rooms with a dedicated iPad to help residents make calls.
  • Cards and letters. Sending cards and letters to your loved ones is another way to show them that you are thinking of them. Some nursing homes have also set up Facebook pages, where people can send messages to residents.

In this unprecedented time, families will need to get creative to stay in touch with their loved ones. For more articles about how families and nursing homes around the country are coping with the new restrictions, click here, here, and here.

Medicare and Medicaid Will Cover Coronavirus Testing

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With coronavirus dominating news coverage and creating alarm, it is important to know that Medicare and Medicaid will cover tests for the virus.

The department of Health and Human Services has designated the test for the new strain of coronavirus (officially called COVID-19) an essential health benefit. This designation means that Medicare and Medicaid will cover testing of beneficiaries who are suspected of having the virus. In order to be covered, a doctor or other health care provider must order the test. All tests on or after February 4, 2020 are covered, although your provider will need to wait until after April 1, 2020, to be able to submit a claim to Medicare for the test.

Congress has also passed an $8.3 billion emergency funding bill to help federal agencies respond to the outbreak. The funding will provide federal agencies with money to develop tests and treatment options as well as help local governments deal with outbreaks.

As always, to prevent the spread of this illness or other illnesses, including the flu, take the following precautions:
•    Wash your hands often with soap and water
•    Cover your mouth and nose when you cough or sneeze
•    Stay home when you’re sick
•    See your doctor if you think you’re ill

For Medicare’s notice about coverage for the coronavirus, click here.

Social Security Shutters ‘Petri Dish’ Offices in Response to Coronavirus Outbreak

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To protect its workers and the public during the coronavirus pandemic, the Social Security Administration (SSA) has suspended face-to-face service to at its field offices and hearings offices nationwide until further notice. Payments to the nearly 70 million Social Security beneficiaries will not be affected.

While in-person appointments will still be made for certain critical services (see below), the SSA is encouraging beneficiaries to transact as much business as possible online using the agency’s website. (If you don’t have an online account yet, click here.)

Certain services also will continue to be available via the agency’s toll-free line, (800) 772-1213 or from local offices’ General Inquiry lines. (For the local office locator, click here.)

Why the Closure?

Budget cuts to Social Security over the years have led to crowded offices and long wait times.  With the advent of the coronavirus outbreak, this went from being an inconvenience to a public health threat.  The union representing the SSA’s 61,000 workers was deeply concerned about the health of the agency’s workforce as well as the danger to the public.

“The offices are petri dishes,” Richard Couture, a spokesman for the union, told The New York Times.  “People are sitting there for a long time, magnifying and multiplying the risk of infection for everyone there, and to people on the outside.”

How to Get in Touch During the Shutdown

Examples of tasks or inquiries that can be accomplished online include:

  • Applying for retirement, disability, and Medicare benefits;
  • Checking the status of an application or appeal;
  • Requesting a replacement Social Security card (in most areas); or
  • Requesting a replacement Medicare card.

(For a complete list, click here.)

Phone services will also be available, although the SSA says it is “focusing on providing specific critical services to people in dire need.” Examples of how the SSA can help by phone include:

  • If you did not receive your monthly payment;
  • If you are currently homeless or at risk of becoming homeless; or
  • If your benefits were suspended and can now be reinstated.

Expect long wait times if calling, however.

In-Person Appointments

In-person help will still be available for a limited list of critical services, including:

  • Reinstatement of benefits in dire circumstances;
  • Assistance to people with severe disabilities, blindness or terminal illnesses; or
  • Help for those in urgent need of eligibility decisions for Supplemental Security Income or Medicaid eligibility related to work status.

If you require such services, you must call in advance; there are no walk-ins at the field offices.

What if you already had a standing appointment or disability hearing scheduled?  If this is the case, the SSA will call you to reschedule or to take care of the issue by phone. Unfortunately, this call may come from a private phone number rather than from a government phone because employees are working remotely and do not necessarily have government-issued phones. Identity theft phone scams where callers impersonate SSA workers were already on the rise, and this will likely only add to beneficiaries’ confusion. Be aware that agency employees will never inform you that your Social Security number has been suspended, demand payment, or seek credit card information.  (Scams taking advantage of the situation have already started.)

For full details on changes to SSA services brought on by the response to the coronavirus, go to the SSA’s Social Security & Coronavirus page, https://www.ssa.gov/coronavirus/

If you are enrolling in Medicare, you can get free counseling from your State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP).  To find your state program, click here.

Medicare is Expanding Telehealth Services During Coronavirus Pandemic

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As part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic, the federal government is broadly expanding coverage of Medicare telehealth services to beneficiaries and relaxing HIPAA enforcement. This will give doctors the ability to provide more services to patients remotely.

Medicare covers telehealth services that include office visits, psychotherapy, and consultations provided by an eligible provider who isn’t at your location using an interactive two-way telecommunications system (like real-time audio and video). Normally, these services are available only in rural areas, under certain conditions, and only if you’re located at one of these places:

  • A doctor’s office
  • A hospital
  • A critical access hospital (CAH)
  • A rural health clinic
  • A federally qualified health center
  • A hospital-based dialysis facility
  • A skilled nursing facility
  • A community mental health center

Under the new expansion, Medicare will now pay for office, hospital, and other visits provided via telehealth in the patient’s home. Doctors, nurse practitioners, clinical psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers will all be able to offer a variety of telehealth services to their patients, including evaluation and management visits, mental health counseling, and preventive health screenings. In addition, relaxed HIPAA enforcement (the law governing patient privacy) means doctors may use technologies like Skype and Facetime to talk to patients as well as using the phone.

In addition to Medicare’s expansion, states are also allowing doctors to provide telehealth services to Medicaid beneficiaries. For example, New York will now cover telephone-based evaluations when an in-person visit is not medically recommended. Many other states are following suit.

This expansion of telehealth services will allow older adults who are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 to stay home and still get medical advice. If you need to see a medical provider during this health emergency, check to see whether they are employing telehealth services. To use telehealth services, you need to verbally consent and your doctor must document that consent in your medical record. For information from AARP on what you might expect during a virtual doctor’s visit, click here.