Public Benefits

The federal government has designed a new Web site, HealthCare.gov, that helps people, including those with special needs, navigate the new health insurance law.

The Social Security Administration has begun to allow applicants for disability benefits to electronically sign their medical release forms in an attempt to speed up the application process.

The Obama administration has provisionally agreed to end Medicare's longstanding practice of requiring that beneficiaries with chronic conditions and disabilities show a likelihood of improvement in order to receive coverage of skilled care and therapy services.

In the first part of a two-part series, we explore initial steps for trustees to take when it comes time to terminate a special needs trust.

In most cases, transferring resources out of a Supplemental Security Income (SSI) applicant's name will result in the imposition of a penalty period. Here is how the transfer penalty works.

When Richard West, a 63-year-old veteran with muscular dystrophy, caught his home health care provider overbilling the state of New Jersey for services that it provided to Medicaid patients, he never expected that the state would reward him for his...

After being off-limits to most members of the public since March 2020, Social Security Administration (SSA) offices are set to reopen on March 30, 2022, barring an unexpected snag or sudden change in the pandemic's trajectory. ...

Many Medicare beneficiaries buy a supplemental health insurance policy, called a "Medigap" policy, but the rules barring discrimination against applicants with pre-existing conditions do not apply to people with disabilities who are not yet 65 years old.

A report written by the Republican staff of the Senate's subcommittee on investigations found that administrative law judges - who decide appeals of federal disability claims - were not always properly citing medical evidence when making positive disability determinations, due...