Legal
Court affirms judgment against daughter for misappropriating funds
A Tennessee couple (Garnette and William Kidd) moved into the daughter’s mother’s home in order to care for her. The mother (Lola Lee Duggan) eventually moved into a nursing home and received Medicaid benefits. After Duggan died the state of Tennessee filed a claim against her estate to recover Medicaid expenses. See article here about Medicaid liens. The estate’s administrator (Duggan’s brother) sued the couple for misappropriating Duggan’s funds. The trial court issued a judgment and the Kidds appealed. The court affirmed the judgment against Garnette Kidd but reversed the judgment against William Kidd. Read the court document here.
Idaho attorney files a petition to review whether or not state can recover assets transferred before a recipient’s death
Martha and George Perry owned property together which Martha Perry transferred to her husband when she entered a nursing home. She then began receiving Medicaid benefits. George Perry died before Martha Perry and the property was sold. Idaho filed a claim against his estate seeking recovery of Medicaid benefits that it had already paid out for Martha Perry’s care.
The trial court held that federal Medicaid law did not permit the state to recover funds from property divested before death but the Idaho Supreme Court disagreed saying that federal law does not preempt the state from recovering assets from both spouse’s estates.
Elder law attorney Peter Sisson filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision in order to address the conflict between that case and a 2008 Minnesota case in which the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Medicaid may not recover from the estate of a recipient’s surviving spouse if, at the time of the recipient’s death, he or she did not possess a legal interest in the property being claimed.
Health
Increase your gray matter by increasing your activity
If you want to avoid Alzheimer’s disease, get out and exercise. That’s the latest report anyway. A study on older adults concluded that an active lifestyle helps preserve gray matter and could reduce the burden of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The study examined how an active lifestyle influenced the brain structure in 876 adults with an average age of 78 years. By using an MR image and building a mathematical model, researchers were able to examine the relationship between gray matter volume and an active lifestyle. The study found a high degree of correlation between high energy output and greater gray matter volume. Dr. Raji, a researcher on the study said the study suggests that an active lifestyle probably increases brain health because of improved vascular health. Read the report on the study here.