I recently brought my Mom to live with me. Has anyone gone the Community Medicaid route? Our elder lawyer has suggested it.

People will chime in. I have never had to use Medicaid in home but I know there is an income criteria that has to be met. Your income is not considered. I always thought Medicaid provided their own aides but my cousin was told to hire privately to use up Aunts money and make sure the agency he hires takes Medicaid so he has no problem transitioning when Aunts goes on Medicaid in home. Looks like Medicaid in NJ works thru agencies.

Privately hiring aids makes you an employer... are you protecting yourselves by using contracts? As an employer, you are required to comply with your state's employment tax withholding rules and reporting. Are you making sure this happens? Having a paper trail of how your mother's money is being spent will be very important if she applies for Medicaid -- there is a "look-back" period (not sure what it is in NY but in my state it is 5 years). There can't be any appearance of "gifting" of money to people or her qualification may be delayed or denied. Also, her pension might be an issue.

I'm not sure about the "quality" or even turn-over of private aids vs. Medicaid-supplied ones, but others on this forum probably have lots of good insights. I would check to make sure what happens on NYS Medicaid when your mom requires more than part-time caregivers. You don't want to get an ugly surprise.