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Utilizing the New LWP-CCS Personal Services Agreement

by with No Comment Estate Planning Drafting SoftwareLegal Technical

Personal service agreements, or personal care agreements, are typically agreements between a family member providing care and another needing care. These agreements act as a legal contract between the two parties regarding the range of care one party is providing to the other. As a Medicaid and/or VA planning tool, a personal service agreements may act as a method of spend-down while making sure your elderly client is provided the services needed and is appropriately compensating a family member who is making personal and professional sacrifices to provide the services.

We are excited to share that the LWP Client-Centered Software is now providing a comprehensive Personal Services Agreement that thoroughly addresses the many issues that Medicaid will consider when analyzing a care plan. The care plan also offers the language you will need if a client starts receiving VA benefits and plans to pay those to a child or family member to provide care.

Bigstock-Legal-Law-Rules-Community-Just-94090013First, the software incorporates all parties involved in the plan and requires that all parties sign the plan.

Medicaid wants to make sure that the compensation offered to the caregiver is reasonable in the area of the country where the services are provided. The LWPCCS incorporates the hourly rates of court-appointed guardians, geriatric-care professionals and general-service providers to justify the hourly rate paid to the caregiver. If you opt to do so, the software can calculate the hourly rate of the caregiver as the average of the rates provided for the professionals mentioned above.

Medicaid will want to know where the care is provided. This can be especially important if the child is moving in with the parent to provide care in lieu of nursing care, as they may later qualify for the child caregiver exemption. The software assumes the care is at the home of the person needing care. However, with the click of a button you can choose another place of care, be it in the child’s home, an assisted living facility, an independent living facility or a nursing home.

The terms of the agreement are an important part of creating a valid contract and meeting Medicaid requirements. The LWPCCS allows you to determine the start date of the agreement, the term of the agreement (lifetime, term of years or term of weeks), how often the caregiver will be paid, and the hourly rate the caregiver receives. Another important note: When the caregiver agreement is produced, it defines the caregiver’s role as that of a general contractor and eliminates any tax liability for the person receiving care, providing additional protections for your client.

The feature of the software that allows you to specify which activities of daily living (ADLs) the person needs assistance with can help with Medicaid guidelines and VA guidelines as well.

Finally, alternate caregivers are named for any time periods during which the caregiver is unable to perform the tasks, due to personal illness, vacation, other employment or any other reason.

You can find the new personal services agreement in the LWPCCS under the Medicaid Qualification folder, since we see it as a critical part of Medicaid planning. Incorporating the new LWP Personal Care Agreement into your practice is yet another layer of solid legal planning and documentation we provide for our clients as LWP attorneys.

If you want to learn more about adding medicaid to your estate or elder law practice register for our FREE WEBINAR "Simplifying Medicaid Eligibility & Qualified Transfers" on Tuesday, March 15th at 2 EST. Click here to reserve your spot now.

Here's just some of what you'll discover…

  • Understanding the 12 Key terms of Medicaid
  • Learn the Qualification Standards: Does Client Meet Needs Tests?
  • Learn the Medicaid Terms of Art
  • Learn the Snap Shot, Look Back/Look Forward Distinction: And how to put it all together
  • At the end of the event receive an ALL STATES Medicaid Planning Resource Guide
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Kimberly M. Brannon, Esq., Legal-Technical & Software Trainer, Lawyers With Purpose

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What David Bowie Taught Us About Personal Care Plans

by with 2 Comments Asset ProtectionEstate Planning Drafting Software

I was in 5th grade when I got my first ghetto blaster. It was pink and came from Santa wrapped up with a David Bowie cassette tape. I played “Dancing in the Street” on that ghetto blaster, danced around my room and stared at my David Bowie poster what seemed like a million times. He was an icon. His music masterfully took over MTV during the time period when MTV played music videos. He was able to paint the exact picture he desired his audiences to see. A talent he held even in death. David Bowie fought cancer for 18 months privately and died in his home, peacefully, surrounded by family. With the help of his wife, Iman, and children David died exactly as he lived … on his own terms.

David-bowie-success-anxietyAs soon as I read of the way that he passed, I instantly knew that David had a personal care plan. He decided exactly who he wanted around him at death. It has been reported that when he got too sick to go to his favorite pub for his favorite sandwiches, assistants would go pick them up for him. When facing a chronic disease, there is so little we can control, but isn’t it nice to know that we can plan to be as comfortable as possible, surrounded by the things and people we love and sheltered from those we do not want around.  

Personal care plans are an amazing, yet largely overlooked, estate planning tool. While having our finances in order is critical, knowing we will pass with the comforts and dignity we deserve can offer more assurance than any other portion of a well-made plan. Early in my career, I largely disregarded the personal care plan as an ancillary document not necessary. But, as I watched client after client pass in various ways under various circumstances, I saw over and over not only the comfort it brought to the ill party, but the guidance and assurance it brought to family members that they were honoring their loved one as he would have wanted.  

A well written personal care plan allows a client the ability to guide who visits during end stages of life. It guides the determination of when and in what condition the person wishes to be taken out in public. It allows a person to select what food, drinks, television shows, books and entertainment he wants available when he can no longer articulate such things. It lists religious preferences and whether or not one wishes to attend church services.

Personal care plans also offer the ability to appoint one’s own disability panel. This disability panel is a group of individuals in someone’s life who will decide when a person is incompetent for purposes of any trust in which his estate is held. What a power! Now this person has kept his life from going on display as a Judge who knows little about him determines his competence. Instead the decision is made by a hand selected group of loved, trusted people in a private manner.

On his 50th birthday, David Bowie stood in Madison Square Garden and said, “I don’t know where I’m going from here, but I promise it won’t be boring.” And, it wasn’t. He left us on top of the charts and under his own terms. As LWP attorneys, how great is it that we make sure our clients pass with the same dignity?  And we have everything we need to do it right at our fingertips within the drafting software…

If you aren't a Lawyers With Purpose member consider joining our FREE webinar "How You Can Have the Business, the Income and the Life that You Once Dreamed About When You First Started Your Practice" on Friday, January 22nd at 2:00 EST.  In just one hour we'll share with you lots of effective techniques – and you don’t want to miss any of them:

  • Streamline your practice, increase revenue, avoid malpractice – all while working fewer hours and enjoying more time to spend with your family and serving your community.
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All Designed With YOUR Practice And YOUR Success In Mind

Kimberly Brannon, Legal-Technical & Software, Lawyers With Purpose