Legal Planning for Tomorrow
Imagine that you are an elderly man in his late seventies with a serious heart condition and have trouble walking without a walker. Your wife was diagnosed three years earlier with advanced dementia and is currently in the hospital with a urinary tract infection. Now after 46 years of marriage to this woman the nurses and doctors are telling you that with her advanced dementia and your weakening physical health, your can no longer take care of her at home, and you need too look at placement for her. Although you are too proud to admit it, you know that the doctors are right, and yet you don't know where to begin to look.
Imagine now that you are the eldest daughter of that couple and prior to mom's admission into the hospital you had been trying to convince your father that it was not safe to keep mom at home anymore because she is awake at night and wanders. Several weekends ago mom turned on the stove to make tea and went back to bed without turning the stove off. Perhaps your don't have to imagine this scenario because maybe your are in this situation now, or maybe you know of someone else who is.
This senario is all to common for elder law attorneys like Laurie Menzies and Chuck Beinhauer, partners in the law firm of Pfalzgraf Beinhauer & Menzies, LLP (PBM) PBM is located on Cayuga Road in Cheektowage and was formed in 2004 by David Pfalzgraf, Chuck Beinhauer and Laurie Menzies, who each ad their own individual elder law practices prior to their partnership. The firm currently has four full-time attorneys who concentrate their practices on elder law, estate administration, and estate and long-term care planning. What is unique about PBM is that it is the only law firm is Western New York that is focused solely on this area and also has a geriatric care manager on its staff. Beverly Kubala, the firm's geriatric care manager, is a Registered Nurse who has worked in both home care and skilled nursing home care for over thirty years.
Since many of PBM's clients come in during a crisis, similar to the one described above, and need some type of immediate plan, it is invaluable to both the attorneys and to the clients to have a geriatric care manager on staff. Beverly is available to meet with the clients at their homes or at hospitals and other facilities to assess their medical situation and to offer expert advice as to the level and type of care available to them She also acts as an advocate for families and meets with the doctors and nurses to help implement and execute a care plan for the client.
"Without knowing what type of care a person is going to require, it is very difficult as an elderlaw attorney to give specific advice to the family regarding their payment options for future health care services", says associate attorney Frank Vavonese. "Having a geriatric care manager that can go and meet with that person immediately and assess them as opposed to waiting for the hospital or facility to make this determination can alleviate a lot of stress and anxiety for the family."
Once the attorney knows what level and type of care the client is going to require he or she can then go to work and draft the appropriate legal documents and recommend and implement a plan to pay for those services on behalf of the client.
Although it is difficult to plan in advance for medical catastrophes, everyone can plan in advance by making sure that they have proper legal documents. PBM also helps families by recommending and implementing plans to protect and preserve assets and assure payment of long term care costs. For all this and more, PBM is here to serve the needs of an aging populations and it progeny.
