ARE THERE WAYS TO MAXIMIZE MEDICAID BENEFITS WHEN ENTERING A NURSING HOME?
Learn some of the things you can do now to plan in the event you or a loved one needs to go into a nursing home.
My name is Ken Kraus. I am one of the attorneys at Evans Fox.
Today we will address how to maximize Medicaid benefits when entering a nursing home.
First, the context … long term care is very expensive, in some cases more than $18,000 per month.
How do you pay for it? If you do not have long term care insurance, and most do not, then the options are typically private pay or apply to the County for Medicaid benefits.
How then to limit private pay exposure while maximizing Medicaid benefits is a critical question.
The first way to maximize benefits is to understand the eligibility rules, which can be put in three categories: assets (what are exempt, what are exposed), income (what is counted and must be spent on care) and gifting (what gifts cause problems).
The next way to maximize benefits is to see if an exception to the general rules applies in your case. If a child is living in your home, you are living in your child’s home or if you have a disabled child, for instance, are all situations where an exception to the general rules may apply.
Finally, a word of caution … access to care must be considered. An effort to maximize Medicaid benefits should not be done at the expense of obtaining the right care at the right place and the right time. A balanced approach often works best, combining private pay for a time with Medicaid pay as well.
For more information about our law firm, please visit our website and for the list of upcoming discussions please see the calendar of topics in this email.
Please look out for our video next month when we plan to discuss “Required Minimum Distributions from IRAs and 401ks