Thursday, October 07, 2010

Attendance at Elder Law Institute

I am currently attending a two-day Elder Law Institute in Indianapolis, Indiana.  The speakers are covering a wide variety of elder law issues and laws.  One of the speakers was Rich Adams.  Mr. Adams works at the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration and was able to discuss how the FSSA is working to improve the Medicaid application process.  His presentation helped us better understand how the state of Indiana handles Medicaid applications and the inner workings of the FSSA.

Another presenter was a doctor who discussed end of life decisions and the role of the patient's doctor.  His presentation was insightful and added credence to the idea of how limited living wills are in practice.  Many of the terms used in the Indiana living will statute are undefined and difficult in practice for the medical profession to handle.  The main take away from his presentation was that there needs to be a conversation between the client and the medical decision maker.

More to come later.