My Dad, in Ohio, is finally giving in after a 10 year battle, and entered Hospice last Friday, it's New Year Day today. With the Holiday I am having no luck getting help. No one is working.
My Mom was a stay at home, old school wife all their 53 years together and has only $300/mo in SS.
By my estimation the "spousal allowance" Medicaid would give her is approx $600 less per month then they get now. She can't live on that too long. He's only expected to live weeks.
If he dies on Medicaid in the NH, and they have NO assets the State can take in MERPS (they don't) when she applies for his SS as Death Benefit will she still only get the reduced amount?
If so, we will somehow have to care for him at home. Though I don't know how, and I have only 2 days until he is discharged... :-O
Please help. I have looked everywhere for this info.
(I was only informed 17hrs ago!!)
Thank you so much!!
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We found more than one lawyer who was willing to explain the rules to us for free and would just want to be paid for any paperwork that we wanted done. Good luck!
What is Dads SS. Lets say 1500. Upon his death Moms 300 will drop and she will get Dads, the 1500. There is a formula they go by, but this is the short version.
You need to talk to Medicaid and have all parents financials available. Insurance policies with cash in value, bonds, CDs, IRAs, bank accts, etc. Half of everything is Moms except SS, that will be handled differently. Medicaid can take you thru it.
This is if you want him in LTC. He can have hospice at home but that leaves family with most of his care.
While in LTC under NH Medicaid (he needs to get signed up) I get that she would still receive a reduced amount, at 150% below the poverty line up to max 2k in OH.
But once he passes, and she collected as his surviving spouse, would it still be the restricted amount or the original "$1500"?
We can deal with poverty for about 6mos, but not forever, and we've already been caring for him on in home hospice 2.5yrs.
We're exhausted, but we'll bring him home if it would put my Mom in poverty. This process is so difficult when you are in the middle of active death.. Argh!
(BTW no assets but having to cash a small life insurance policy in)
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It's a common misperception that the spouse "gets" the deceased spouse's Social Security. Everyone always gets their own social security. Upon the death of a spouse, your mother's social security will be calculated again, using your father's earning record.
If she applied for Social Security benefits before her full age of retirement, she accepted a permanent discounted amount. (That isn't as bad as it sounds because it is calculated so that you end up receiving the same amount if you live to the expected age of death for your gender.) So if your father dies, your mother's social security can equal as much as the amount he was collecting. However, if she collected before full retirement, she will still have to take the discounted rate. So it may be slightly less than his full social security amount.
But it doesn't have anything to do with how much income she is allowed to have for your dad to receive Medicaid.
I do not know all the ins and outs but when my father went to hospice MediCARE paid for everything. Maybe ask the hospice organization how your dad's care is going to be billed now that he is on hospice.
I'm sorry you are starting the new year with this sad state of affairs.