I'm a live in caregiver and I'm POA. home is mine for this in will. I live in Tennessee. I am a live in care giver for my Aunt. She is in late severe stage dementia. I am also her POA. She has already set it for me to inherit the house in her will. I've been told if she owns a home she will have to forfeit the home for care when she get worse and or ends up in a nursing home for medical care that I would be unable to provide. My question. will they be able to take the house if I am living there. Some one told me that I should consider the house as "paying for the 24 hour care that I have given for 3 + years now. I never looked at it that way reason being it was that way prior to our arrangement plus I do this because she's my family and it needed to be done. I think living there and it being my only housing should account for something too. Anyone had this issue and if so please help. Thank you in advance ! Have a Blessed day :)
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My mom also had a long term care policy. However early in her disease either forgot to make payments or decided to stop paying on her policy due to unwise decisions common in the early stages of dementia. The policy lapsed. So, be very careful about committing too much more of your life to caring for her when money is involved the remainder of the family are crawling out of the woodwork.
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I assume that if Aunt needs nursing home care she will also need Medicaid. Is that the case? And, as FF explained, states must try to get their funds back after the recipient dies. But there are exemptions, and one of them is for relatives who have provided care that has kept the recipient out of a care facility for a certain length of time (2 years). Such a relative may inherit.
Check with the state agency that handles Medicaid.
Unless things have changed in the last few months, Tennessee has turned down expanded Medicaid. What FF and I are talking about is pretty standard old stuff, and mandated federally. So I'll cross my fingers for you that you can get what you need for Aunt!
The taxpayers foot the bill until the patient passes, then Medicaid wants reimbursement in the form of taking the house and/or any other assets. Depending on how long your Aunt is in a nursing home and the value of the house, Medicaid might not need the whole value. Or your Aunt could be there for many years and the value of the house is much less then the final bill, then the taxpayers pay what wasn't collected.
Now, depending on your State, your State Medicaid might be able to let you keep the house if you had given your Aunt a certain number of years of care, thus keeping her out of a nursing home.... but you would need to prove that your Aunt needed around the clock care, meaning you did the work of 3 full-time caregivers per day.
I hope this all works out for you.