If her MC participates in LTC Medicaid then once mom is right at the point where she is going to end her month at the LTC Medicaid asset maximum of 2K (for a widow) then that next month she should apply for Medicaid. Usually the social worker & billing work in tandem with the DPOA to get the application done.
it’s really important to be absolutely clear that the MC takes Medicaid. If not, then she may need to be shown “at need” for a NH as it’s skilled nursing care & covered by Medicaid.
The facility should have a list of financial items needed to accompany the application. I’d suggest that you get this list now and start to gather up the items and get them Xeroxed. It could be that the state will want 5 years of monthly banking statements, her will, life insurance info, any documents on real property sales within past 5 years. It takes time to find & organize, so ask the office for the list and get a binder going. Then the month she come in under the asset max you’ll be ready to submit her LTC Medicaid application.
if this place does it as a roll over from private pay to Medicaid Pending, it’s pretty straightforward if you have all the items on the list to submit at the same time as the application. If at all possible you want it to be all documents all at the same time. Then as she’s Medicaid Pending, if she’s in a single room, she likely moves to a share room. She will have to do a copay of basically almost all her monthly income to the NH as the required Medicaid copay, starting the day her application is signed off on. If your mom already has the MC as her representative payee for her SS, the copay gets done automatically & her personal needs allowance gets put into an in house Trust acct at the MC for her or you as her DPOA to draw from. If your keeping her income going to her bank, then you have to make sure the copay gets paid each month by a check to the MC.
If the MC does not take Medicaid, then the person will need to be moved to LTC. With my Mom, she paid 2 months privately and then Medicaid kicked in. From the day you apply, you have 90 days to meet the criteria. Mom was placed on May 1st paid for May and June privately. In that time I provided Medicaid with all the paperwork required and spent Mom down to the 2k allowed. I confirmed with the caseworker in June that everything needed was done and Medicaid started July 1st.
IMO if the MC does not except Medicaid then you may need to take what money is left and pay a couple of months at least privately in a LTC facility. That will give you time to apply and receive Medicaid.
Many MC units, like ALF don't accept medicaid. When funds are gone and there is no payment, usually the person is asked to leave. This is something to speak to the facility about before that happens both to find out if there is an option to stay on medicaid and to find out how long they can hold off while applications are worked on.
Does her facility accept Medicaid? If so, and you've already applied for Medicaid, ask the facility if they will accept her as a Medicaid pending resident. That means they would continue to allow her to reside there w/o paying until her application is approved. If app'd, the faciliity will be reimbursed by Medicaid for those days w/o payment and your mom can continue to live there and her cost would be covered by Medicaid. If, however, her app is rejected, she will be held responsible for those days she didn't pay. So it depends on how optomistic you are about her being app'd.
If her facility doesn't accept any Medicaid residents, you'll have to find one that does. You should be looking for that other facility now if that's the case.
You have to private pay until Medicaid kicks in & pays the monthly rent for the resident. If she runs out of money BEFORE Medicaid kicks in.........well, I don't know what happens, really. Ask the facility, I guess. Medicaid normally takes 3 months or so to get approved.........do you have someone helping you with the process, or are you going it alone?
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it’s really important to be absolutely clear that the MC takes Medicaid. If not, then she may need to be shown “at need” for a NH as it’s skilled nursing care & covered by Medicaid.
The facility should have a list of financial items needed to accompany the application. I’d suggest that you get this list now and start to gather up the items and get them Xeroxed. It could be that the state will want 5 years of monthly banking statements, her will, life insurance info, any documents on real property sales within past 5 years. It takes time to find & organize, so ask the office for the list and get a binder going. Then the month she come in under the asset max you’ll be ready to submit her LTC Medicaid application.
if this place does it as a roll over from private pay to Medicaid Pending, it’s pretty straightforward if you have all the items on the list to submit at the same time as the application. If at all possible you want it to be all documents all at the same time. Then as she’s Medicaid Pending, if she’s in a single room, she likely moves to a share room. She will have to do a copay of basically almost all her monthly income to the NH as the required Medicaid copay, starting the day her application is signed off on. If your mom already has the MC as her representative payee for her SS, the copay gets done automatically & her personal needs allowance gets put into an in house Trust acct at the MC for her or you as her DPOA to draw from. If your keeping her income going to her bank, then you have to make sure the copay gets paid each month by a check to the MC.
IMO if the MC does not except Medicaid then you may need to take what money is left and pay a couple of months at least privately in a LTC facility. That will give you time to apply and receive Medicaid.
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If her facility doesn't accept any Medicaid residents, you'll have to find one that does. You should be looking for that other facility now if that's the case.