Law Offices of Penny Kassel & Associates, P.C., lawyers in Garden City, NY, New York

Mandatory Services - Nursing Facility Services

Medicaid is a federal entitlement program that provides health care coverage to Americans with low income and assets. Although the states administer Medicaid for their residents, there is a core group of services, known as mandatory services, they must provide. One of these services is the provision of nursing facility services for individuals who are at least 21 years old. The federal government dictates that only certain types of costs may be charged to residents of these facilities.More...

Medicare - Supplemental Health Insurance - Changing Medigap Policies and Losing Medigap Coverage

Sometimes, elderly Americans who have Medigap insurance to supplement their Medicare coverage wish to switch to a different policy. Other times, they must select a new policy if they wish to continue coverage because their insurance company goes bankrupt or because they move out of the policy's service area, for instance. This article discusses the typical circumstance in which an insured wishes to change policies to obtain additional covered services or to find lower premiums. More...

Medicare - Supplemental Health Insurance - Payment for Services and Proper Insurance Practices

When an individual has purchased a Medigap insurance policy to supplement Medicare coverage, how medical bills are paid depends upon two factors: whether the medical provider accepts Medicare and whether the individual has arranged for his or her Medigap insurance company to send claims directly to Medicare.More...

Social Security - The Basics

The Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance Program, often known as Social Security, provides America's aging population with a full spectrum of benefits, including retirement benefits, survivors' benefits, Social Security Disability benefits (SSDI), and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). President Franklin Delano Roosevelt originated the program as a way to protect Americans from the pitfalls of poverty after the Great Depression.More...

Nonqualified Annuities

A nonqualified annuity is purchased outside of an employer-provided retirement plan. After-tax dollars are used to fund a nonqualified annuity, so contributions are not deductible from gross income for income tax purposes. Taxes on interest or earnings in a nonqualified annuity are deferred until withdrawal. In a lump-sum distribution of a nonqualified annuity, the monies may be transferred into an IRA or similar vehicle to defer taxes additionally. Only a portion of a monthly annuity payment is taxed because each payment is partially principal that has been taxed and partially interest earned. The portion of the monthly payment that is excluded from taxes is determined by an exclusion ratio. The exclusion ratio is the total amount of premiums paid divided by the total expected payment amounts. If the expected return is based on a life expectancy or joint life expectancy, the Internal Revenue Service has tables and multipliers that are used to determine the total expected return. If the expected return is not based on a life expectancy, the total expected return is the sum of all amounts to be received. More...