My 75 year old aunt sold her home 2 years ago and no longer has the money, but needs long term care. Who will take her?
She has lived with me for 3 years and is now in the hospital. I told all her healthcare workers that my house is no longer safe. She only got $13,000 for her home
The hospital will have a discharge planner (tends to be a SW social worker but bigger hospitals have RN - SW teams who do it). The usual path is they contact the whomever the family members is / are on the elders admission paperwork to schedule for you to pick up your family member from the hospital & you agree. BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE 2. You need to very clearly and definitely tell them that 1, you cannot safely and securely care for your Aunt in your home and they need to find a facility suitable for her “needs”. 2. You are NOT coming to get her. They may ask for contact info on other family members, personally I’d say that you don’t know how to reach others. If your not good on being fixed & firm in dealing with authority, I’d role play your answers ahead of time. Often discharge planners are relentless like debt collectors & folks get flummoxed and agree to stuff they shouldn’t. So be ready.
If she is low income and has no savings and no current assets, then she will end up filing an application for LTC facility Medicaid. LTC Medicaid looks bac 5 years for most states & I’ll bet that 13k sale price will red flag a LTC Medicaid application. The red flag would revolve around if the sale was actually more “gifting” of an asset of hers rather than a sale at FMV aka Fair Market Value. SO Was the 13k within maybe 10%-20% of the overall tax assessor value on the home? The assessor value (& its annual property taxes due) is available on line for most places and tends to go back 2-3 years. AND was sale “arms length” aka the property sold to someone who was NOT a relative but was a price anyone could have bought it at, if so, then there should be no problems with her application. If it was done by a Realtor, w an MLS listing, and sold that way, that’s arms length sale.
If house was a special price sold to a family member or neighbor, then Medicaid will look to see if “gifting” applies & if so, it will cause issue for her eligibility. If this seems to be what happened, can you do an update with whatever you know to be the details on the house sale?
On her spending g the 13k over a 2 yr period, I wouldn’t worry about that as $6500 added to her SS$ over a year is going to be eith in annual cost of living.
Yes, tell them you can no longer care for her. If they help you with Medicaid application make sure you understand your part in it. In my State they only allow 90days to get a recipient spent down, paperwork needed together and find a place. The house maybe a problem if sold within the 5 year look back. 13k is not much. Should have been sold for market value. But really, not ur problem. You may want the state to take over her care. A guardian will be in charge of her care. They will get things done faster than you. And as said, tell the staff means nothing. You need to tell the Social Worker that its an unsafe discharge and you are no longer willing or can't care for her.
The hospital care manager and social workers will find a nursing home that will take your aunt while Medicaid is pending. Usually the hospital social worker will meet with you to prepare the application for LTC Medicaid.
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BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE 2.
You need to very clearly and definitely tell them that
1, you cannot safely and securely care for your Aunt in your home and they need to find a facility suitable for her “needs”.
2. You are NOT coming to get her.
They may ask for contact info on other family members, personally I’d say that you don’t know how to reach others. If your not good on being fixed & firm in dealing with authority, I’d role play your answers ahead of time. Often discharge planners are relentless like debt collectors & folks get flummoxed and agree to stuff they shouldn’t. So be ready.
If she is low income and has no savings and no current assets, then she will end up filing an application for LTC facility Medicaid. LTC Medicaid looks bac 5 years for most states & I’ll bet that 13k sale price will red flag a LTC Medicaid application. The red flag would revolve around if the sale was actually more “gifting” of an asset of hers rather than a sale at FMV aka Fair Market Value.
SO
Was the 13k within maybe 10%-20% of the overall tax assessor value on the home? The assessor value (& its annual property taxes due) is available on line for most places and tends to go back 2-3 years.
AND
was sale “arms length” aka the property sold to someone who was NOT a relative but was a price anyone could have bought it at, if so, then there should be no problems with her application. If it was done by a Realtor, w an MLS listing, and sold that way, that’s arms length sale.
If house was a special price sold to a family member or neighbor, then Medicaid will look to see if “gifting” applies & if so, it will cause issue for her eligibility. If this seems to be what happened, can you do an update with whatever you know to be the details on the house sale?
On her spending g the 13k over a 2 yr period, I wouldn’t worry about that as $6500 added to her SS$ over a year is going to be eith in annual cost of living.
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