Case of the Week 11/22/06

County: Wetzel
Client's Age: 78

Client's husband is applying for Nursing Home Medicaid, and NH is asking for financial information from client to complete the application. Client and husband, however, have been estraned and legally separated for over 30 years. Client was concerned about whether Medicaid Estate Recovery could apply to her home. We explained the federal right of spousal refusal in NH Medicaid law permits client to refuse to cooperate and therefore keep her home out of the consideration entirely.

Case of the Week 11/14/06

County: Upshur
Client's Age: 67

Client's deceased husband was a coal miner. She had been receiving Black Lung benefits but was notified they were being terminated. We located an experienced attorney to represent her in filing an appeal, and he successfully got her benefits restored.

Case of the Week 11/10/06

County: Brooke
Client's Age: 77

Client's SS benefits have been affected by an overpayment SSA levied under the fairly recently-enacted fugitive felony provisions. Though the underlying warrant was an error that C corrected as soon as SSA notified him of the problem, SSA charged C with a significant overpayment of benefits, and notified him they would stop his check for several months for the repayment. We counseled client to appeal for a hardship waiver, and helped him identify evidence and arguments to support each element of the waiver for use in his appeal.