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(Editor's Note: This article first appeared on 9/5/05. The health care proxy and guardianship was removed from June Maxam by Warren County Court judge John S. Hall on 9/23/05 after Eden Park Health Care Center in Glens Falls refused admittance to Gerald Maxam if June Maxam had any role in making decisions relating to his health care---direct disregard of Gerald's personal wishes. He had been held hostage at Glens Falls Hospital since Feb. 12 and the hospital financially benefited by raping the Medicaid and Medicare system as well as Blue Cross's Senior Blue. He was admitted to the nursing home on Oct. 12. He died there on Nov. 12.)
Everything has a price.
Especially the health care services for an elderly man.
Especially if his daughter is a "controversial" newspaper publisher, judicial activist, legal reformer and coordinator of the NYS Oaths Project.
How do you spell retaliation?
If a person is an "activist" and dares to stand up not only for her rights but the rights of others and particularly those of her parents, does that give Warren County entities the right to deny an elder his constitutional rights and steal his property?
The price one pays for activism is steep when the government retaliates against the family of a person who dares to speak out, who dares to challenge wrongdoing, who blows the whistle. Not only has government sought retribution and heaped reprisals against their critic and adversary but against that person's family, stooping so low as to direct their prejudice and bias towards the health care services of elderly parents and seek to deny them any chance of happiness during their last few years with both in declining health.
In Warren County, retaliation is spelled taking a man's assets, gouging Medicaid and refusing to allow an elderly man admittance to a nursing home because his daughter is, according to Glens Falls Hospital, a "controversial person in [the] geographical area".
That's the plight of Gerald Maxam of Chestertown, 88, in declining health and in need of placement in a nursing home or returned to his own home with nursing care.
Instead, he's being held hostage at Glens Falls Hospital where he's been since February and Glens Falls Hospital is financially benefiting by billing Medicaid instead of him being returned to his home with home care or placed in a nursing home near his family and now they want every penny of income he receives.
He and his wife of 58 years want to be together in the same facility or in their own home---and there is no legal reason why that should not occur.
But so far, Warren County officials and their Warren County associates in the health care industry are doing their best to insure such does not occur which severely impacts the health, welfare, mental well-being and best interests of the elderly couple.
Their daughter is June Maxam, co-publisher of The Empire Journal and publisher of The North Country Gazette, a long time critic of government focusing particularly on corruption in the criminal justice system---especially judicial tyranny. As coordinator of the NYS Oaths Project, she challenged the legitimacy of the state's judiciary for their failure to comply with the law in the taking and filing their oath of office and bonds and won, with the state Legislature passing a bill "clarifying" the law and agreeing that town and village justices are required to file their oaths and bonds in three locations or else they vacate their office.
Warren County moved Ethel, the publisher's mother, out of her parents' home last October and into Eden Park Nursing Home in Glens Falls, totally circumventing their daughter-the "controversial person", after an aide from Greater Adirondack Home Health Aides, engaged by the county to assist in the care of Mrs. Maxam, caused her to fall from a Hoyer lift when she was being transferred from her bed to her wheelchair. The elderly woman struck her head on a cast-iron radiator, causing a large gash in her head that required 8 staples in her head and hospitalization.
The county and agency has steadfastly refused to provide the Maxam family with the name of the aide that was responsible.
In March, while Mrs. Maxam was a resident at Eden Park Nursing Home, another resident-apparently unsupervised by the nursing home staff-attempted to take a blanket from Mrs. Maxam's bed which ultimately caused Mrs. Maxam to fall from her bed, striking her head on a nightstand resulting in a trip to the emergency room. She sustained severe bruising of her body and head.
Eden Park has now denied it happened although when the incident occurred, nursing home staff had telephonically informed the daughter of the incident. That was the only time that they have advised the publisher of her mother's medical condition despite her being her mother's health care proxy until removed several weeks ago after the publisher filed a complaint against the nursing home with the New York State Department of Health.
Now Warren County and Glens Falls Hospital have their tentacles on the Maxam home and Gerald has been virtually abandoned in Glens Falls Hospital, at $750+ a day since February, because his daughter is a "controversial person".
Gerald Maxam was admitted to the hospital on Feb. 12 after he fell at home and June Maxam requested that he be transported to the hospital for an evaluation. While undergoing therapy, his heart stopped and he became critical. The publisher was summoned to the hospital and forced to sign a do not resuscitate order after the nurse told Mr. Maxam, "You've lived a good long life Mr. Maxam, but now it's over".
But Mr. Maxam rallied.
Since that time, June Maxam has not been provided with any information concerning her father's medical condition except for the hospital stating that he is not in need of acute hospital care, a clear violation of the patient's Bill of Rights.
Rather than discharge him to his home with nursing care and home health aides, the hospital has continued to retain him as a patient although it was acknowledged by David Kruczlnicki, president and CEO of Glens Falls Hospital, that Mr. Maxam does not require acute hospital care. Apparently no steps were taken to place Mr. Maxam in a nursing home until after April 15 when the 90-day threshold of Medicare had been met as well as Mr. Maxam's private insurance through Blue Cross of Northeastern New York. Once the hospital had exhausted Mr. Maxam's medical insurance and profited from it while admitting that he did not require hospital care, only then did they seek to place him on Medicaid and began charging at least $750 a day against his real property. Now it appears that the hospital is handsomely profiting through Medicaid.
Although hospital case manager Christine Friere had stated that after April 15, Mr. Maxam would not be covered for his hospital stay by Medicare or insurance, she delayed for more than two weeks in providing the required paperwork to Maxam to apply for other assistance. Although the publisher completed the application and sent it back within a day of receipt, the hospital then claimed that she was not "cooperating" and called her sister, Janet Agard to complain. When June Maxam contacted the hospital, it was learned that Friere was on vacation and that the completed application as sent by June Maxam days before, had indeed been received by the hospital and that their call was unfounded and actually constituted harassment.
All telephonic communications with the hospital and in particular Ms. Friere, have been audiotaped by the publisher including one conversation in which Friere threatened that the hospital would seek guardianship of Maxam's father, although agreeing that there were no grounds to do, because Maxam wouldn't agree to placing him in a Washington County nursing home when there were beds available at facilities in Warren County. She maintained that the nursing homes that she had contacted had refused Mr. Maxam admission but refused to give her a valid reason.
In New York State, in a two-party conversation, it is legal to tape a telephone conversation as long as one of the parties is aware of the taping.
On April 30, Maxam had received a letter from Friere that stated that "from our conversation of April 27, 2005, you will complete the application and you are comfortable with Janet, your sister, scheduling and meeting with Warren County DSS to process this application".
The application was completed and returned on May 1, the day after receipt by Maxam. However, apparently sister Janet refused to schedule and meet with DSS and Warren County refused to contact June Maxam.
According to the hospital, Janet Agard has refused to assist her father.
Maxam has now been notified that the hospital wants Warren County and Robert Phelps, director of the Warren County Department of Social Services, to be awarded guardianship of her father. They say that the nursing homes in Warren County have refused him as a patient because his daughter is "controversial" and because she has refused to allow the hospital to ship him to a Washington County nursing home in Granville which would require family members to travel over an hour and a half one way to visit him when there the Adirondack Tri-County Nursing Home in North Creek is less than 20 minutes away from their residence.
"There is absolutely no legal, valid reason why my father cannot be admitted to a nursing home in Warren County, preferably in the same facility as my mother, or else returned to his home with the proper care", Maxam says.
"Under ordinary circumstances, the refusal to agree to a nursing home placement on two occasions would not give rise to a petition for guardianship, particularly if there is a health care proxy and power of attorney (both of which are in place) and the patient is not objecting to placement", James W. Connolly, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Glens Falls Hospital says in his petition to name Warren County guardian because June Maxam won't agree to placing her father in Granville.
"June Maxam, however, is a controversial figure in our geographical area. As a result, Petitioner's staff has been advised by a number of nursing homes that they will not offer Mr. Maxam a bed because they do not want to deal with his daughter, June", Connolly said in a sworn affidavit to the court.
Neither Connolly or James Horwitz, legal counsel for the hospital, have contacted Maxam to discuss the matter.
Maxam says that such refusal of health services and care on such grounds is discriminatory and a violation of rights of both the publisher AND her father who is being penalized for her activism and exercise of First Amendment rights.
Apparently all determinations by the nursing homes have been based solely on discussions between Glens Falls Hospital and the nursing homes in question as June Maxam has never been contacted by any of the nursing homes to discuss admission and has never spoken to any of their representatives with the exception of the Adirondack Tri-County Nursing Home in North Creek. It appears the entire "determination" has been made on prejudice and hearsay.
Eden Park at first stated they would accept Mr. Maxam as a patient but then refused. A Eden Park supervisor later stated it was because they were afraid that "there might be a problem" although admitting on tape that as of that date, there had been none.
According to Friere, both the county-operated facility at Westmount in Queensbury and Fort Hudson Nursing Home in Fort Edward refused Mr. Maxam as a patient. No representative of these nursing homes or Warren County has ever spoken with June Maxam and although contacted in writing and asked to provide a reason for their refusal for admission, they have refused to discuss the matter.
Although Karen Woodcock, administrator of the Adirondack Tri-County Nursing Home, initially stated in an interview with the publisher that they could immediately admit the publisher's mother and would admit her father as soon as a "male" bed became available, once the application was submitted and Woodcock learned that the patients involved were the Maxams, Woodcock refused to return the publisher's phone calls or respond to inquiries about the admission process.
The hospital apparently never attempted to place Mr. Maxam at the North Creek facility and apparently haven't attempted to place him at Stanton Nursing Home in Glens Falls.
Lloyd Cote, Eden Park administrator, has falsely stated that the publisher had refused to discuss the application. It is unknown when the application was submitted or who submitted it but neither Cote nor any representative from the nursing home ever contacted Maxam to discuss it although she is at the nursing home several times a week to visit her mother. Cote also falsely claimed that the publisher had expressed "opposition to [Hudson Headwaters Health Network] providing her father with medical care".
Cote also stated that "since you act on behalf of your father, we presume he shares your same opinions".
"Presume??", Maxam asks, "since when was expressing an opinion and exercise of First Amendment rights grounds to deny someone health care, medical assistance or even admission to a nursing home. Isn't that discrimination, violation of civil rights? Bias and prejudice? Retaliation on supposition and expression of First Amendment rights?"
Cote stated that "we have no attending physicians on our staff other than HHHN personnel. Therefore your father is not a candidate for admission since there is no physician with credentials at this institution who can attend to his medical needs".
In essence, Cote is stating that Hudson Headwaters Health Network, Mr. Maxam's primary physician, is refusing to provide him medical treatment should he be admitted to Eden Park. He is currently and has long been treated by HHHN.
The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance issued a directive to Warren County last October to return Ethel Maxam to her home and reinstitute home care and housekeeping services. So far, Warren County has refused to acknowledge the order and has refused to provide Maxam with any records or documentation needed to contest the county's refusal to comply with the state directive.
Warren County has violated provisions of the state's Administrative Code, according to the state OTDA by refusing to provide Maxam with the requisite records needed to take the matter to a "Fair Hearing" and has thus denied Mrs. Maxam her due process rights. But, if the county can keep the house unoccupied and refuse to return Ethel to her home, then the county can place a lien on the property and claim ownership.
Although both her father and mother signed documents authorizing the release of their medical records from the hospital to Maxam, Glens Falls Hospital has refused to provide any of Gerald's records and has sanitized Mrs. Maxam's records, conveniently eliminating records of all hospitalizations of the time frame in question including the treatments of her at the emergency room from the nursing home incident and the 8-day hospitalization resulting from the negligence of the aide assigned to care for her.
When speaking with an attorney about filing a claim for negligence against the nursing home, Maxam was advised to first obtain a copy of her parents' medical records. She contacted the medical data records department of the hospital and was told, without having to identify the names of the patients whose records were sought, that all that was needed in order to secure a copy of her parents' records was a copy of the daughter's power of attorney for her parents. That was quickly provided along with copies of the signed medical release forms. However, apparently the policy changed when the hospital found out whose records were being sought.
The hospital provided no records for Gerald and sanitized the records for Mrs. Maxam. The hospital refused to respond to an inquiry why the missing records had not been provided.
Upon filing a complaint with the NYS Department of Health against the hospital and Eden Park Nursing Home regarding the medical care of her parents, the publisher's health care proxy for her mother was revoked and the hospital has now mailed papers without proper service indicating that they are seeking guardianship of her father, placing all decisions for his care solely in the hands of Warren County and Robert Phelps who has steadfastly refused to discuss Maxam's parents with her.
Although being the health care proxy for her father, Maxam has been provided virtually no information concerning his health by the hospital. In several incidences, the hospital has refused to provide her information concerning her father citing HIPPA. In the last month although Mrs. Maxam has again been taken to the emergency room and in an unrelated procedure, underwent eye surgery, the nursing home has refused to notify Maxam even though at the time she was still the health care proxy for her mother.
Although the nursing home claims that her mother asked to have Maxam removed as her health care proxy and that she did not want her to have access to her medical records, Ethel Maxam is adamant that is untrue. She says she is afraid to speak up and say how she really feels because she fears "they" won't let her "board" there any more and she won't have any place to stay. She is afraid of retaliation if she speaks out----and it's apparent her fears are well founded.
When Maxam told the nursing home that she could not attend a meeting on the day they dictated one be held, they held it anyway, refusing to reschedule it for Maxam's attendance although the supposed purpose of the meeting was to discuss Maxam's concerns with the care of her mother. To date, Eden Park has refused to arrange a meeting between their staff, Maxam and her mother. The "ombudsman" has offered to discuss the matter with Maxam but not in the presence of her mother. Gifts and pictures given by the publisher to her mother have been removed from her mother's room and her phone number was removed from her mother's bulletin board. Her mother has stated on several occasions that she has asked staff to call her daughter but no calls have been received from the nursing home.
In July, when Maxam called the nursing home, asking them to tell her mother that she could not visit that day because her dog was ill---a dog beloved by her mother--- the staff falsely told the elderly woman that the dog had died, causing an unnecessary emotional upset.
On July 26, Mark Lacivita, director of administration, Office of Administrative Hearings, notified Phelps, that the county was in violation of state law and that pursuant to state Administrative Law, the county was required to provide the daughter with the information.
"Pursuant to 18 NYCRR 358-3, 7(b) appellants and their representatives have the right to be provided, within a reasonable time before the date of the (fair) hearing, at no charge, with copies of all documents which the social services agency will present at the hearing in support of its determination and any additional documents identified and requested for the purpose of preparing for the fair hearing".
To date, Phelps and the county has refused to comply and now the hospital wants Phelps to have control of Maxam's father too in an apparent move to shut their daughter totally out of their care and affairs.
Interestingly enough, the "court" has assigned an attorney to represent Mr. Maxam in the hospital's attempt to ship him to Granville and name Phelps as his guardian. Warren County Court Judge John S. Hall, with whom Maxam is currently engaged in a contentious court proceeding and who is the subject of a complaint by Maxam with the District Administrative Judge of the Fourth Judicial District and the NYS Commission on Judicial Conduct, has named James Burkett of Bartlett, Pontiff, Stewart and Rhodes to be Maxam's attorney.
The county and Phelps are being represented in the guardianship action by the Warren County attorney's office where Amy Bartlett, daughter of Richard Bartlett-the principal at Bartlett, Pontiff---is the deputy county attorney so Bartletts represent both sides of the case.
Although Hall's court attorney and law clerk had stated in writing that Hall would recuse himself from matters pertaining to Maxam on the request of either party because Maxam charged that he had a conflict of interest in matters pertaining to her, once the request was made by Maxam and was not opposed by the adversarial party, Hall refused to recuse himself and refused to honor his statement.
Now he apparently thinks he is going to decide guardianship and other matters pertaining to Maxam and her family.
A complaint has already been filed against Hall with the state Office of Court Administration and steps will be taken to effect a change of venue from Warren County due to the highly prejudicial situation and the hospital's highly improper and discriminatory reasoning why they are seeking guardianship of Mr. Maxam.
Several civil rights organizations have expressed their interest in becoming involved in the matter and civil rights complaints are being initiated with the U.S. Department of Justice under the Civil Rights Division and Americans with Disabilities Act.
Maxam is currently seeking an attorney to represent her parents.
Discrimination. Retaliation. Retribution. Unequal treatment. Bias and prejudice. Violations of constitutional rights.
All those terms seem to fit.
The octogenarian is being penalized because his daughter has dared to get involved, dared to challenge the system and yes, even beaten the system.
Maxam had malicious prosecutions brought by Warren County in 1998 vacated and reversed on April 15 after the People agreed that her constitutional rights had been violated and that the charges brought against her had been legally insufficient and she should not have been prosecuted.
April 15 is the same day that the Glens Falls Hospital advised her that her father's skilled nursing care services were no longer covered and he would be personally charged $750 per day because the hospital had neither returned him to his home nor taken steps to process his Medicaid application.
Maxam is also the coordinator of the New York State Oaths Project which proved that over 90% of the 3,300 justices and judges in the state were in office illegally, unlawfully collecting tax dollars and benefits because they had failed to complied with the law they were supposed to be administering---they hadn't properly filed their oath of office and bond.
As a result of Maxam's activism and court challenges to judges in Warren County, embarrassing the entire state court system and the Office of Court Administration, the State Legislature passed a bill "clarifying" the law and in essence admitting that Maxam was correct.
An article reporting the legislative action and validation of the Oaths Project was published several weeks ago.
Maxam and The Empire Journal have also been engaged in a long-running challenge of the state's Medicaid system and in particular, the Medicaid role in the Road-to-Recovery program of the state Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services formerly led by Robert Bruno, brother of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno who heads the state's Task Force for Medicaid Reform.
And then two weeks ago, there was another dismissal of long pending criminal charges against Maxam---of three false arrests and malicious prosecutions brought in 2000 by Warren County officials, those charges being dismissed because her constitutional rights had been violated again.
That may have spurred the hospital's decision to seek guardianship and stick Mr. Maxam in Granville.
Of course there's also the matter of Ralph Dubay, Johnsburg town justice who was one of the town justices named in the oaths litigation. Dubay unlawfully incarcerated Maxam in 1998 on a bogus contempt charge filing by the county. He "forgot" to inform her of his employment with the county which she later learned was a violation of the federal Hatch Act and legally barred him from serving in an elected position.
She was acquitted of that charge at jury trial after having been incarcerated.
After she learned that Dubay is employed as a welfare examiner with the Warren County Department of Social Services, a complaint was filed and the Office of Special Counsel informed Dubay he had violated the Hatch Act and was told if he sought reelection as a town justice while still holding his county position, he would be criminally prosecuted. Dubay couldn't seek reelection this year because Maxam had caught him violating the federal law and now the hospital is seeking to have Dubay's employer be the guardian for Maxam's father.
Then there's also the controversy involving the alleged use of Town of Chester computers to post defamatory and libelous material on several internet forums. Maxam has filed a complaint against the Town of Chester and the bookkeeper and confidential secretary of Chester Supervisor Frederick H. Monroe for allegedly posting the defamatory material during business hours using town computers. http://www.theempirejournal.com/0824052
_Town_of_Chester_Computers
_Allegedly_Used_To_Attack_The_Empire_Journal.html
Monroe, vice chairman of the Warren County Board of Supervisors and chairman of the county's finance committee, is also a member of the board of directors of the Adirondack Tri-Country Nursing Home where apparently both of the Maxams have been denied admission although no reason has been given.
In 2004, Monroe and the Chester Town Board tried to place Mr. Maxam in jail, claiming that he was in violation of the town zoning ordinance. http://www.courtwatchers.org/NYTOWNRESORTS.htm
11-19-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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