My father who is 87 years old, lost 95% of his hearing so he is hearing impaired, disabled veteran, on dialysis and requires a walker. He went to Melissa Victor, Esq. Requesting for Medicaid assistance because his wife was in the hospital with cancer and other related problems and his health insurance, Tufts/U.S. Health threatened to stop coverage. My mom is unable to walk or care for herself.
As her only child, I have been driving 90 miles daily to care for both of my parents until my mom had to go to the hospital due to pneumonia and staff infection. Now the health insurance threatened to stop making payments to the hospital and we didn't know how my father would be able to pay for the nursing home for my mom. So we only had a few weeks to prepare Medicaid forms for coverage so we went to Melissa Victor, Esq. She heard our dilemma and stated that she could complete the Medicaid forms for my dad and ensure that my mom would get the coverage and she, Melissa would provide estate planning for my dad.
My father and I were very stressed since we were under pressure by the health insurance and I was battling with the doctors, nurses and health insurance to ensure that my mom was appropriately taken care of. I was experiencing stress related symptoms and my dad was extremely nervous and stressed. Melissa seemed like she could help our dilemma and she would do the work for us and ensure that my mom's nursing home bill would be taken care of by Medicaid.
She had my dad complete and sign a form which stated that my dad would pay a portion of the $6,000 up front. However, after my dad signed the form she demanded a check for $6,000 stating that her assistant Beth had now arrived and she had to pay her upfront. We felt trapped, and my dad didn't know what else to do so he gave her a check for $6,000 and within a few weeks before we were able to provide all of the financial documents required to process the Medicaid application, my mother passed away.
Melissa Victor would not reimburse my dad. The day after she took the $6,000 from my dad, she told him after reviewing his bank statements that since he did not have over $120,000 he did not require estate planning even though she charged him for it upfront. She did not reimburse him.
My father is now in the hospital and he will be discharged to a rehab hospital. I don't want to experience the same thing with my dad as I did with my mom.
Therefore, I emailed Melissa Victor and ask that since she took the $6,000 from my dad and never provided the estate planning services nor did she prepare the Medicaid documents therefore, I requested that she do so for my dad as my mom has passed away. She wrote me back an email and said that the $6,000 was for my mom and even though she passed away before she could provide for the services, that it isn't her fault that my mom passed. So for her to prepare Medicaid forms for my dad she would charge me a reduced rate but I would have to pay her for his services.
This is truly unethical. I feel that she took advantage of an elderly disabled man of color at his lowest moment. She knew that he was not of sound mind when he gave her that $6,000 and when he signed the form.in addition, the form stated that he pays only a portion of the fee and yet she pressured him to pay the $6,000 up front. He felt that he had to get some attorney to help him get the papers rushed through as his wife was being transferred any day to a facility and he would be charged daily. He felt helpless and she took advantage of him.
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