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Luvmomalways Asked May 2018

Does Medicare/Medicaid pay a caregiver to take care of elderly?

My mom has dementia and I take care of her. I take her to doctors appt, wash her, cook etc.... I am not working now and when I was I had Family Leave on my job. Someone told me I could get paid for taking care of her. Is this true and what’s the process?

worriedinCali May 2018
Medicaid actually does pay for family caregivers in multiple states but is usually minimum wage (I know of one state that pays more) but your family member has to qualify for in-home support & only a certain amount of hours are paid so even if your state has this program and mom qualifies, you wouldn't be paid much.

freqflyer May 2018
Luvmomalways, the vast majority of grown children who are now doing caregiving for a parent do not get paid.... unless, as Ahmijoy had mentioned above, the parent is able to pay.

You could check with your State Medicaid [different from Medicare] office to see what programs would be available, if your Mom can qualify for Medicaid. Medicaid is funded by us taxpayers thus State Medicaid budgets are tight. Each State handles their own Medicaid programs.

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Ahmijoy May 2018
Unfortunately, most states do not pay families to care for their loved ones, and if there is some fund, it barely pays enough for Pizza. Medicare and Medicaid do not. The only way you could get paid is by Mom herself, out of Mom’s funds. You would need to draw up an agreement and both of you would have to sign. If Mom has dementia and is not capable of signing, you’d have to ask an attorney how to go about it, how to claim it on your taxes, etc. and keep in mind that you’d have no medical benefits, retirement fund, or anything else. I’d ask the person who told you that you could get paid for caregiving for more details and then post it here. We’d all like to know if we’re missing something.

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