Friday, April 23, 2010, 11:08 AM
Do you have a veteran in your family? The Veterans Administration has many programs that might help your family, including the seniors in your family. You should read an article the AARP has posted, called Giving Back to Vets, that describes the veteran benefits available.Click here to read the article.
Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com
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California Watch Expose Shows California Department of Public Health Collects Only a Fraction of Fines Owed by Bad Nursing Homes
Thursday, April 22, 2010, 02:14 PM - Nursing Homes, If You're Not Outraged . . .
Reporter Christina Jewett of California Watch has posted another article,"Why Is State Only Collecting One Third of Nursing Home Fines?" Jewett (pictured to the right) analyzed data 
from the State that shows that the California Department of Public Health -- the agency that licenses and has oversight over California nursing homes -- is letting nursing homes avoid or delay payment of fines imposed for breaking state law. Fines are the price the nursing home must pay for violating the law -- hence no fine, no penalty. Jewett connects the trend in decreased collection of fines (In 2005 the state collected 60% of fines against nursing homes but by 2008 they only collected 30% of the fines) to a 2004 change in the law (AB 1629) which lets the nursing homes hire lawyers to fight the fines and bill the State for the cost of their legal fees. The nursing home can delay paying the fine by filing a legal challenge and if they lose, bill the State for the cost of their legal fees. The 2004 thus gave nursing homes an incentive to challenge and delay payment.
To locate and contact your State Senator and State Assemblyperson, and demand a change, click here.
To read Jewett's article, click here.
Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com
Ain't Nobody Home: Gap in California Law Lets Board and Care Home Operators Hide Foreclosures From Their Elderly Residents Until The Sheriff Comes Knocking At The Door
How would you feel if you went to visit your elderly parents at a rest home, and found an eviction notice 
posted on the door, stating that the home was going to be sold at auction or that the home residents were being evicted? Suppose further that this was the first notice you had that the rest home was in financial trouble, and that your parents might have just a few days, or less, to find a new home?
According to a recent New York Times article, When Foreclosure Threatens Elder Care Homes, that is the
situation that Brenda Wing, pictured here, found herself in when she went to visit her 84-year-old father in the Northstar Manor care home in Woodland, here in Northern California. Records show that the home was in foreclosure but the homes owners gave their elderly residents no warning that eviction could be imminent, and they even lied to Brenda Wing when she asked them about it, telling her that there was nothing to worry about, and when she persisted, that it was none of her business.
How big of a problem is this? The New York Times analysis shows that here in the San Francisco Bay Area there are 1,600 board and care homes -- small residential care homes for elderly who need simple “custodial” care or assistance with activities of daily living such as eating, bathing, dressing and grooming – and that 16 percent of them have been in some stage of foreclosure since June 2006. That includes more than 100 homes under foreclosure in the last six months, with as many as 700 elderly residents affected.
Board and care home owners are taking advantage of a gap in California law, which lets them keep their elderly residents in the dark as to the care home’s financial troubles, even when foreclosure of the care home or eviction from the home is imminent. The board and care home owners involved would rather hide the foreclosure than take the chance that their elderly residents would move before the property was sold.
Anthony Chicotel, a Staff Attorney with advocacy group California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), who is working on changing the law, is quoted by the Times as pointing out that the elderly can be evicted “without any notice, without preparation, without any arrangements for an alternative residence. Not only are they losing their home, but they are losing the services that allow them to live.” To rectify that, CANHR has asked State Senator Mark Leno, to introduce legislation that would require care home owners to notify the licensing authority, and the elderly residents and their families, within 24 hours of notification of foreclosure, bankruptcy, missing a mortgage payment or the prospect of a utility cutoff. The proposed law would also fine owners who failed to do so $100 a day, and permanently disqualify them from operating elder-care homes in California.
The bill won’t be voted on until June. California Governor Schwarzenegger may need a push to sign this legislature, assuming it passes the California legislature. Click here to email him to support the change in the law and protect the elderly from unexpected foreclosures.
What can you do to protect yourself from this type of situation or if you are in this type of situation?
1. Check the property address on a real estate website
such as www.zillow.com, which may list whether they
are current on their mortgage, whether the
property is in foreclosure or preforeclosure.
2. Ask the owner of the board and care if they are
behind on their mortagage, in pre-foreclosure or
foreclosure, whether they are any plans for the
property to change hands in the next year, and
whether they are having any financial
difficulties. Bring someone with you as a witness
so it won't be just your word against theirs.
3. Get the owner's commitment to inform you of any
difficulties that could force the sale of the
property, as soon as they materialize.
4. If you learn of foreclosure, contact the bank
(the name will be posted on the eviction
notice)directly and try to negotiate a delay
of the sale until you can relocate.
5. Consult a lawyer and call the state licensing
office, the Department of Social Services
Community Care licensing. Their website is
www.ccld.ca.gov.
Click here to read the Times article.
Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com
posted on the door, stating that the home was going to be sold at auction or that the home residents were being evicted? Suppose further that this was the first notice you had that the rest home was in financial trouble, and that your parents might have just a few days, or less, to find a new home?According to a recent New York Times article, When Foreclosure Threatens Elder Care Homes, that is the
situation that Brenda Wing, pictured here, found herself in when she went to visit her 84-year-old father in the Northstar Manor care home in Woodland, here in Northern California. Records show that the home was in foreclosure but the homes owners gave their elderly residents no warning that eviction could be imminent, and they even lied to Brenda Wing when she asked them about it, telling her that there was nothing to worry about, and when she persisted, that it was none of her business. How big of a problem is this? The New York Times analysis shows that here in the San Francisco Bay Area there are 1,600 board and care homes -- small residential care homes for elderly who need simple “custodial” care or assistance with activities of daily living such as eating, bathing, dressing and grooming – and that 16 percent of them have been in some stage of foreclosure since June 2006. That includes more than 100 homes under foreclosure in the last six months, with as many as 700 elderly residents affected.
Board and care home owners are taking advantage of a gap in California law, which lets them keep their elderly residents in the dark as to the care home’s financial troubles, even when foreclosure of the care home or eviction from the home is imminent. The board and care home owners involved would rather hide the foreclosure than take the chance that their elderly residents would move before the property was sold.
Anthony Chicotel, a Staff Attorney with advocacy group California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), who is working on changing the law, is quoted by the Times as pointing out that the elderly can be evicted “without any notice, without preparation, without any arrangements for an alternative residence. Not only are they losing their home, but they are losing the services that allow them to live.” To rectify that, CANHR has asked State Senator Mark Leno, to introduce legislation that would require care home owners to notify the licensing authority, and the elderly residents and their families, within 24 hours of notification of foreclosure, bankruptcy, missing a mortgage payment or the prospect of a utility cutoff. The proposed law would also fine owners who failed to do so $100 a day, and permanently disqualify them from operating elder-care homes in California.
The bill won’t be voted on until June. California Governor Schwarzenegger may need a push to sign this legislature, assuming it passes the California legislature. Click here to email him to support the change in the law and protect the elderly from unexpected foreclosures.
What can you do to protect yourself from this type of situation or if you are in this type of situation?
1. Check the property address on a real estate website
such as www.zillow.com, which may list whether they
are current on their mortgage, whether the
property is in foreclosure or preforeclosure.
2. Ask the owner of the board and care if they are
behind on their mortagage, in pre-foreclosure or
foreclosure, whether they are any plans for the
property to change hands in the next year, and
whether they are having any financial
difficulties. Bring someone with you as a witness
so it won't be just your word against theirs.
3. Get the owner's commitment to inform you of any
difficulties that could force the sale of the
property, as soon as they materialize.
4. If you learn of foreclosure, contact the bank
(the name will be posted on the eviction
notice)directly and try to negotiate a delay
of the sale until you can relocate.
5. Consult a lawyer and call the state licensing
office, the Department of Social Services
Community Care licensing. Their website is
www.ccld.ca.gov.
Click here to read the Times article.
Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com
California Watch Expose: Nursing Homes Take Advantage of 2004 Law To Boost Their Profit Margin, Not Their Staffing or Wages
Sunday, April 18, 2010, 05:43 PM - Nursing Homes, If You're Not Outraged . . .
File this under “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.”Remember a law California passed in 2004, designed to provide California nursing homes with additional MediCal money? This law -- The Nursing Home Quality Care Act -- was passed to address nursing homes’ complaint that the homes are understaffed because they simply cannot afford to hire more staff or to pay more wages. Under this law, the state’s 1,100 nursing homes received an additional $880 million in funding during 2004-2008, to hire more staff and pay better wages.
Reporter Christina Jewett (pictured at the right) of California Watch has done a study, Nursing Homes Received Millions While Cutting Staff, Wages to see whether the additional funding to nursing homes has resulted in better staffing and salary levels. Jewett reports that 232 of 645 nursing homes receiving the extra funding either cut staffing, reduced wages, or violated state law minimum staffing level laws. These same nursing homes had fatter profit margins than other California nursing homes. 
Jewett was also able to show a further correlation – the nursing homes receiving the extra funds that made the steepest staffing cuts also had about 30% more “deficiencies” (violations of State Title 22 licensing regulations) than the average California nursing home.One other interesting fact in the article, “Nursing homes are allowed to bill the state for legal fees spent fighting abuse and neglect citations and lawsuits. They can bill for legal fees spent fighting audit findings they disagree with.” In other words, your tax dollars are going to help nursing homes hire lawyers to defeat elder abuse lawsuits and to challenge state officials who find the nursing home to be breaking the law.
The California Watch articles are mandatory reading for anyone with a family member in a California nursing home or anyone with a lawsuit against a California nursing home. The California Watch website contains data for each of the 232 nursing homes on the list (organized by county and by facility name). Check to see if your nursing home is on the list -- if it is, it should be a red flag to you that the nursing home is compromising staffing or wages for the sake of corporate profits. If you are prosecuting a lawsuit against a nursing home who has fattened its profit margin while cutting its staff, the data will help you build your case that the nursing home was reckless, willful or malicious under the California Elder Abuse and Dependent Adult Civil Protection Act.
Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com
Sunday, April 18, 2010, 03:56 PM - Heros & Heroines
If you don't like cute animal stories, . . . read this anyway. You'll love this one.A dog, Bella, and an elephant, Tarra, living on an elephant
sanctuary, became best friends. They don’t let their differences (in this case their species) get in the way of their friendship. These animals have something to teach us about 
accepting each other’s differences and finding joy in unlikely situations. Click below to see the original story, broadcast on CBS News by reporter Steve Hartmann.
Felicia Curran
www.ElderAdvocacyLaw.com
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