I visit my mother every other day at her nursing home. She is in a facility that is 30 minutes away. The amount I spend on gas is starting to pile up. I am her Power of Attorney and eventually I will need to apply for Medicaid to keep her in the nursing home. We are having to spend down her money and it will be several months before we can start applying. I don't want anything to hurt her chances of being approved. I feel horrible about this but would I be able to get gas help through my mother's money. I don't want to visit less. I feel like my presence so often at the nursing home helps with the care she gets.
I believe you will find you can be paid to be her POA, but not exactly that, you can be paid to do her accounting, etc. You can use that money for gas. If she was at home and you were in charge of her care it would be more flexible but because you are not actually physically caring for her it's more touchy.
Have you prepaid her funeral?
If not, please do, it is money allowed to be used pre-medicaid but you can't get it back if it's gone.
So, assuming they consider any of it gifting, how much would that amount to in the end? Keep receipts and if they reject payments made for gas or "services", you'll just have to kick that amount in if/when she goes on Medicaid.
I felt that I earned every penny of it with the additional work load [hours of paperwork etc] because I kept track of time & I got about 1/2 minimum wage so she got a bargain - however this small amount also kept me from being resentful of time & money it cost me .... that alone is priceless
So start paying yourself a small amount for POA fees that cover what you need & possibly back date it to Jan 2019 for past expenses if you feel justified in this - I wrote a cheque to myself with "POA fees May" on it so that you can show a proper paper trail
It appears you have had your question answered.
Now I have a question for you. Have you considered investigating legal ways to transfer funds away from your mother prior to application for Medicaid so there will be funds to support her while receiving benefits?
The particular methods available will vary by state. In Florida there are several methods available to my clients including transferring funds to a Supplemental Needs Pooled Trust, establishing and funding a Personal Care Agreement, purchasing an interest in a pooled income producing real estate arrangement.
All of these methods DO NOT result in the incursion of a Medicaid eligibility penalty (aka "5 year look back").
Please seriously consider this as you will certainly need funds for mom's support while she is on Medicaid. The above arrangements will provide for that.