2024 Medicaid Numbers
Last month in this blog I updated you on some of the new Social Security and Medicare numbers for 2024. The recently announced cost of living adjustment (COLA) of 3.2% has resulted in a much smaller benefit increase than the past 2 years. Many other federal programs are tied to the Social
Another Medicaid Cautionary Tale – Part 3
In my blog post last week, I explained that John was unsuccessful in his attempts to obtain Medicaid benefits for his mom. He then ended up being sued by the facility for the amount of unpaid bills which were not covered by Medicaid. But why did his repeated attempts fail? From my conversation
The Types of Long Term Care Facilities and Why It Matters – Part 3
In this third post of three, I continue to discuss why understanding the type of facility you are considering is so important. Last week I talked about long term care insurance policies that may apply differently to nursing home care vs. assisted living care or home care. The type of facility also
Is There Ever an Easy Medicaid Application? Part 4
In last week’s post I continued to tell you about a Medicaid application which our client characterized as easy but turned out to be not so much. One check deposited into an account we were aware of, then led us to 2 other accounts in another bank that we had
Is There Ever an Easy Medicaid Application? Part 3
Continuing the topic of my last 2 blog posts, I was discussing a snag we hit with a Medicaid application - the discovery of at least one account of which our clients had no recollection. When we identify the bank in these situations, that has always been enough for the bank
Is There Ever an Easy Medicaid Application? Part 2
In my post last week I began to tell you about an “easy” Medicaid application that suddenly became not so easy. A deposit in one of the applicant’s known accounts led to the revelation that there had been at least one other account unbeknownst to the applicant’s daughter. What this means is
Is There Ever an Easy Medicaid Application? Part 1
When I speak with people for the first time about the Medicaid application process - specifically about the 5 year look back and the amount of documentation required - they often tell me that in their case it should be easy. “Mom never had much,” they’ll tell me. But is that necessarily
How Not to Lose Medicaid (Part 5)
In last week’s post I explained that when the non-Medicaid spouse dies, the Medicaid spouse must receive at least a minimum amount of assets from the deceased spouse. This is known as the elective share and in New Jersey is determined to be 1/3 of the deceased spouse’s estate less what
The Imperfect Medicaid Approval – Part 2
In my post last week, I wrote about a trend we are seeing with our Medicaid applications - with every approval we get there almost always is something incorrect about the decision. Last week I told you that some of the mistakes can be easily corrected. Others, however, require that we file
The Imperfect Medicaid Approval -Part 1
In this week’s blog post I return to the topic of Medicaid. As I often tell people these days, Medicaid application are more challenging than they have ever been. But even after we get our cases approved, rarely is there an instance in which the approval is a perfect one. There almost