In discussions regarding long term care, many of our clients have expressed a belief that Medicare covers nursing home stays. In fact Medicare's coverage of nursing home care is limited to 100 days of "skilled nursing care" per illness. However, there are a number of requirements that must be met before the nursing home stay will be covered. The result of these requirements is that Medicare recipients are often discharged from a nursing home before they are ready or must privately pay for continued care in the nursing home.

In order for a nursing home stay to be covered by Medicare, you must enter a Medicare-approved "skilled nursing facility" or nursing home within 30 days of a hospital stay that lasted at least three days. The care in the nursing home must be for the same condition as the hospital stay. In addition, you must need "skilled care." This means a physician must order the treatment and the treatment must be provided daily by a registered nurse, physical therapist, or licensed practical nurse. Finally, Medicare only covers "acute" care as opposed to custodial care. This means it covers care only for people who are likely to recover from their conditions, not care for people who need ongoing help with performing everyday activities, such as bathing or dressing.

The IRS recently announced in Rev. Proc. 2007-66 that the annual gift tax exclusion will remain at $12,000 per donee ($24,000 for couples electing to split their gifts) for gifts made in 2008. Other adjustments that have been impacted by inflation in the gift and estate tax area include the following:

• the annual exclusion for gifts to a non-citizen spouse have been increased from $125,000 to $128,000
• the Generation Skipping Tax exemption amount remains at $2,000,000 (the same as the estate tax exclusion amount) and is no longer adjusted for inflation.

As if the early Presidential campaign were not irritating enough, the political campaigning presents the potential for another email based scam. Many of us have received emails from various politicians seeking support.

According to Wikipedia, "[p]hishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. eBay, PayPal and online banks are common targets. Phishing is typically carried out by email or instant messaging, and often directs users to enter details at a website, although phone contact has also been used."