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RubyRose4 Asked January 2019

Cousin is in a nursing home on Medicaid. How will his Medicaid be affected when his mother dies and he receives an unexpected inheritance?

Domestic Violence situation. Elderly aunt called the police and 2 years later her only son was put in a Nursing home due to dementia. My aunt who is 92 now is wondering what is going to happen to her home when she dies. She wants to leave it to her son. I told her she can't do that because he is on Medicaid and he can't have more that $2000 in assests. He is currently in a small room with 3 other men. Could he be eligible to be upgraded to a semi private room with his inheritance and then go back on Medicaid when the money runs out? His mother's home is probably worth $100,000. I told her she probably needs a power of attorney because her son won't be able to conduct any financial business. Am I correct? Any advice that I can give to my aunt on how to proceed?

JoAnn29 Jan 2019
A friend of mine's husband had ALZ. She told me that in the state of NJ you can't leave money to an ALZ patient. So the husbands sister left the money to my friend to help with his care. You may want to check that out with a lawyer. I wouldn't leave money to someone on assistance. It will just go for his care. He won't enjoy it.
RubyRose4 Jan 2019
Thank you JoAnn for responding. I will check it out with a lawyer. Thank you again.
freqflyer Jan 2019
RubyRose, nursing homes are very expensive. My Mom was paying $12k per month, so $100k would get eaten up rather quickly, less than a year. I don't think it would be fair for your cousin to move to a semi-private room for a year or less, then to move back to 4 in a room.

THIS IS IMPORTANT, your Aunt may need her own Assisting Living later on. Unless she has other financial means, she would need to sell her house and use what equity there was in the house, to fund for HER own care being self-pay.

I can understand her wanting to leave her house to her son, and she can still do that in case she never needs to use an Assisted Living or Nursing Home, but if she has to sell the house for her own care, the house will be gone when the Will is read.

Oh, as for Power of Attorney, does your cousin has his own Power of Attorney? If not, he needs to get one as long as he can still think clearly. If he can't, it's too late. Or is there a Guardianship for your cousin?
RubyRose4 Jan 2019
Thank you Freqflyer for your thoughts. Never thought how bad of an idea it would be to be change a person back and forth from their room. Never questioned if he had power of attorney. Just assumed the nursing home does.

My aunt is rethinking about her own care and how her home would be that solution.

I appreciate your honesty, and giving me some clarity.

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