Advance Beneficiary Notice (ABN) – A document that is an agreement that the patient will pay for a health care service if Medicare does not pay for it. Health care providers are required by law to present the agreement and have the patient sign the ABN on each visit the potentially uncovered service is performed or used.
advance directives – Documents that make instructions about what is to happen in the event that you can no longer make decisions for yourself; these documents include a living will and a medical power of attorney.
administering an estate – The management and distribution of a deceased person’s estate.
Administrative Law Judge – An official who presides at an administrative hearing and who has the power to administer oaths, take testimony, rule on questions of evidence, and make factual and legal determinations.
affidavit – A sworn statement or declaration put in writing and notarized.
Aged & Disabled Medicaid Waiver Program – An alternative to nursing home care which allows an individual to hire a health care professional to come into her home to take care of her.
appraisal – Putting a value on the assets of an individual.
assets – Everything which can be made available for the payment of debts.
assign – In rental property, a transfer of the entire interest remaining in a lease.
attorney-in-fact – archaic term for a person appointed in a power of attorney who is responsible for managing the individual’s affairs, now called Agent.
augmented estate – In the law of wills and estates, it includes all property from which the deceased benefitted.
automatic stay – A stay which bars all debt collection efforts against the debtor; it takes effect immediately after filing bankruptcy.