My father is currently housed in a Nursing Center in Putnam County. He doesn't have the income to stay longer than his Medicare and Supplemental Insurance will allow. However, his income is too much to readily apply for Medicaid. I am in desperate need of finding someone that can aid me in aiding him.
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If so, dad or you as his dpoa should look into what your state allows for a Miller Trust (aka a Qualified Income Trust). Miller - to me - isn’t a DIY project. It’s best done by an elder law atty.
Roughly how a Miller works would be.... say dad gets each month 1k from SS, $1300 from a pension and $300 from his late wife’s retirement. Each mo his income is $2600. BUT your state has the maximum monthly income for Medicaid at $2100. Dad is $500 over the limit. Assuming income qualifies for Miller, his income has the Miller as payee, he gets “paid” by Miller $2100 and the excess either gets paid to the NH or stays in the Trust. Now realized he doesn’t actually get paid, as the income is required to be paid to the NH as his copay of SOC (share of cost) under Medicaid rules. Miller is a way to legitimately lower too high income to Medicaid limit. If Miller has funds left after he dies, all the $ goes to the state as beneficiary. Not to family or heirs.
It kinda needs to be set up in tandem with his Medicaid application so his income can clear the limit. Comprende?
He still will have to submit all the other paperwork required by Medicaid, like have his non exempt assets under 2k (for individual applicants) and however his state does the look-back. So that needs to get found & be in order to clear Medicaid. All the NH we looked at for my mom & MIL had a list of items that needed to accompany the Medicaid application. If the facility he’s in now takes Medicaid and has open Medicaid bed, ask the social worker to get you set up with admissions to get the documentation list. To add the atty cost to shepherd dads application I’d bet won’t increase fees too much to what the Miller will cost, so Atty. can handle both for your dad.
I’m guessing he’s in rehab. If so, try to encourage him to do whatever to show “progress” in his rehab so he can stay longer & have it paid by Medicare. If he’s progressing, in theory rehab can run 100 days. Day 21-100 will have a copay which hopefully his Supplemental will pay.