Brief observations on developments in elder law, Medicaid, estate planning, and tax — alongside our occasional By the Numbers series, which digs into the data behind the elder care decisions Pennsylvania families face.
Every family's situation is different. A brief conversation with our attorneys is the best way to understand how new rules, policy changes, or legal developments apply to your specific circumstances.
What Washington Just Did to Your Medicaid Plan
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act is the most sweeping overhaul of Medicaid since 1965 — and most of the families who will be affected by it have no idea it exists. Retroactive coverage shrinks from 90 to 60 days starting January 2027. Eligibility reviews move to twice yearly. The federal nursing home staffing standard was eliminated entirely. And nearly $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over ten years will pressure states to reduce home care services that allow seniors to stay out of nursing facilities. The window for planning is narrowing. Read the full piece for what Pennsylvania families need to know now.
The $15 Million Exclusion Is Here — and It’s Permanent
The One Big Beautiful Bill permanently raised the federal estate and gift tax basic exclusion to $15 million per individual ($30 million for married couples) and eliminated the TCJA sunset that had kept families in planning limbo for nearly a decade. The changes are permanent unless Congress acts again. For most families this doesn’t remove the need for planning — it changes what the planning should look like.
Your Digital Life, Your Digital Legacy
A February 2026 federal ruling in United States v. Heppner held that conversations with public AI tools carry no attorney-client privilege and may be discoverable in litigation — a development worth knowing for clients and attorneys alike. More broadly, digital assets, AI-generated likenesses, and the question of what happens to your data after death are reshaping what estate planning needs to address. Pennsylvania’s RUFADAA gives fiduciaries access rights, but only if your documents explicitly say so.
Where Pennsylvanians Receive Long-Term Care
Ask most people where Pennsylvanians needing long-term care end up, and you'll hear some version of the same answer: a nursing home. The numbers tell a different story. Most Medicaid-funded long-term care in Pennsylvania is now delivered at home, not in a facility — and that gap between perception and reality has real implications for how families should plan.
First in a four-part series on the data behind elder care decisions in Pennsylvania.