What Medicaid Covers – Part 2
In last week’s post I was telling you about a call I received revealing a very common misconception about Medicaid. Julie will lose her alimony payments in 6 months, dropping her income from $5000 per month down to $1000 per month. She is 69 years old and
What Medicaid Covers – Part 1
The call we received last week raised a common misunderstanding about Medicaid. Julie called regarding getting Medicaid benefits. Julie is 69 and in relatively good health for her age. She is selling her home and will be moving to a rental unit in a senior housing complex.
Julie expects to sell her home and net $200,000 after paying off a $250,000 balance on her mortgage. She has another $200,000 of savings. Julie also has a long term care insurance policy that pays as much as $300 a day for long term care in a nursing home, assisted living facility or care at home for 3 years. She also has income of $1000 per month from Social Security and she receives $4000 per month of alimony from her ex-husband.
So why is Julie asking about Medicaid? It appears that $5000 of income per month is enough to support her lifestyle. Julie is concerned because her alimony payments will terminate in 6 months and she is looking to replace the $4000 of alimony income that she will lose. With only $1000 a month of income, Julie will need to dip into her savings to meet her monthly expenses. Julie figured that Medicaid could help plug that gap.
Lack of Verification – Worse than a Medicaid Penalty (Part 2)
In last week’s post, I was talking about how Medicaid eligibility hinges in large part on the State’s scrutiny of 5 years of records under Medicaid’s look back period. Transfers of money out of the applicant’s accounts for less than fair value trigger a Medicaid penalty or
Lack of Verification – Worse than a Medicaid Penalty? Part 1
Whenever we are preparing to file a Medicaid application on behalf of a client we closely examine the 5 years of records that we will need to provide to the State together with the 16 page application. Those records include every statement for every asset the client
The Biggest Misconception about ALFs and Medicaid (Part 3)
The last two weeks I have been talking about the biggest misconception about assisted living facilities and Medicaid so let’s continue. I explained to Carol the issue with level of care – that her mom must establish the need for nursing home level care even
The Biggest Misconception about Assisted Living Facilities and Medicaid (Part 2)
Last week we were discussing Carol, her mom and a very common disconnect we see when families speak with assisted living facilities. The facility explained its requirement that residents must private pay for a certain period before being considered for one of its Medicaid slots. Carol, however, heard something
The Biggest Misconception about ALFs and Medicaid – Part 1
I wrote about this 5 years ago, but it still is one of the most common misconceptions families have about the ability to qualify for Medicaid in an assisted living facility. Let’s look at the following very common scenario. Mom can no longer live at home alone.
Irrevocable Trusts and Medicaid (Part 3)
I promised in last week’s blog post that I would explain another solution to Mary’s Medicaid dilemma. Her uncle left assets in a trust for Mary but the terms provide that the funds can be used for Mary’s health support and maintenance. I explained to Mary and
Irrevocable Trusts and Medicaid – Part 2
In last week’s blog post I was talking about a call I received about Mary, who is now in a nursing home. She has spent her assets towards her care and the only source of payment left is money that was left in an irrevocable trust for Mary’s
Irrevocable Trusts and Medicaid – Part 1
I’ve written about trusts many times on my blog over the years, specifically about how we get many callers asking us to take a look at an existing trust the caller has set up - or that a family member set up for the caller - to