My mom was recently diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s. Currently she lives in an independent retirement community. She receives PT, OT, and speech services several times a week. All her meals are prepared and served in the dining room. So it is called “independent “ but it has many features of assisted living. Her short term memory is progressively getting worse.
She recently caught the flu and was hospitalized for 10 days. It has hit her pretty hard so I know things are going to start moving faster. My mom has a decent retirement and receives Social Security making her monthly income around $4900 per month. She has no other assets. I take care of all her finances and medication.
So I know eventually she will have to go on Medicaid for long-term care. I am not able to care for her in my home for many reasons. I don’t want to wait for an emergency need to place her. I plan on visiting nursing homes to start to get an idea of where I would like her to go. I will be talking with her doctor at her next appointment about how she will proceed.
I read everything on this forum constantly, but I would appreciate any and all suggestions/advise on how to proceed going forward.
And like Fawnby said below, get your moms name on the list for the facilities you prefer sooner than later.
If not, I would tranfer her to a really good, reputable facility that has a continuum of care and accepts Medicaid.
At $4900 a month she will not qualify for Medicain unless you do a QIT, which is a special trust that takes the "overage" of income into a special trust that keeps the money and allows her to qualify for Medicaid (and assuming she medically qualifies for LTC as well). Her SS covers her custodial care (room & board). When she passes, that trust money goes to Medicaid to cover the cost of her care. You should talk to a Medicaid Planner for her home state. You also should be her PoA. If you're not, then you need to become her legal guardian