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My mom is 71 and has been having some health issues. She just got out of the hospital. She has trouble walking and she had hospital delirium. She is also incontinent. She currently has Medicare, but I don’t know if she can also get disability benefits as well.

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No, it's either one or the other. And if someone is on disability prior to being eligible for Medicare, as soon as they are Medicare eligible it automatically switches to Medicare.
Now depending on your moms income and assets, she may be eligible for Medicaid.
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BarbBrooklyn Feb 2023
I am confused by your answer, FG.
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Welcome, Mlynn!

Do you mean that mom is on Medicaid?

I assume she gets Social Security. Have you looked into applying for SSI?

Here is a good link:

https://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-other-ussi.htm
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At 71 your Mom should also be on Social Security. As Barb posted you Mom maybe able to get Supplimental Income (SSI) and with that comes Medicaid. You Mom cannot get Social Security disability after 65. Call your local Social Service dept.
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elmer1 Mar 2023
Nope, either one or the other.Either a ss chk or a disabilty chk.She can draw Medicaid if she is at a certain income level.
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Soesking about SSA sge.
I got laid off from my SF Goodwill job from the Covid pandemic in Sep. 2020, forcing me to start Medicare at 65. Since I was born in 1955, I had to wait 14 more months until age 66.2 for full Social Security benefits. Fortunately, I got pandemic funds with unemployment insurance and worked two additional jobs to get to my
SSA timeframe.
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Pata, you did not have to wait to receive your SS until 66.2 yrs thats just when you will get 100%. You can start collecting at 62 but will only receive 75% and that goes up according to age u start taking it. If you can hold out till 70 u getv135%
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Patathome01 Mar 2023
Thank you. Unfortunately, I could not afford to start Social Security at age 62 because income would not be enough, nor wait until maximum benefits that start at age 70 for Social Security because I had no other source of income to enable me to wait longer. I had to retire at age 66.2 due to health and other conditions.

Employers to me were no longer friendly environments for me and caused me too much stress. Too bad I was forced out of that Goodwill job with my former employer's covered health insurance that could have saved me money until I retired at full benefits age instead of getting laid off from work during the 2020 Covid pandemic. After losing my employer's benefits with no other health insurance coverage available at the time, I had to start Medicare Part B and Medicare Advantage the month I turned 65, 14 months before full SS age, forcing me to work two additional jobs until just long enough to close the income gap until full SS started.

Once you are out of a job and age 65, you must start Medicare, even if you start another job soon after to avoid health insurance gaps to avoid penalty, and my next job was only temporary holiday work for 3 months but without benefits. The last job came right after the temporary work that offered benefits I could not use since I already had Medicare.
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My mother is 83. Receives Medicare/Atna. Since becoming her medical proxy and working with her doctor who has documented she has limited mobility, I have been able to secure a handicap placard, provide transfer benches and incontinence items, through her insurance and senior services in her county. Check out BenefitsCheckUp.org and other resources by searching 'benefits for seniors' on the AgingCare site.
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Not if she is getting Social Security.
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Does she have Social Security benefits? Disability benefits are for those under the full Social Security age who cannot work due to disability. Eligibility rules are very strict meaning that employees must be unable to stand or sit for long periods, and their status must be certified by their doctors annually to be paid. At full SS age, it goes right to regular SS benefits.
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It depends on what you mean or what you are looking for when saying “disability benefits” at 71 her SS income is her SS Disability as far as income. That’s not the actual case of course but disability income takes the place of your working income when working and unless she was working and not collecting SS there isn’t a disruption of income, if she isn’t collecting SS my guess is she will need to start collecting but that’s a situation for SS and or her place of work to explain.

If you are looking for assistance both financial and care it will depend largely on the state you (she) lives in, many have all kinds of assistance for seniors wether they qualify for Medicaid or not bus aside from SNAP (food assistance) it will either pay directly for the assistance or reimburse like housing and or utility assistance not simply give her an income. Medicaid while living in the community does not take her SS income but of course is dependent on how much that income is.

It can seem like an overwhelming maze but once you get the lay of the land and I would suggest contacting the Department or Agency of Aging in your state to start, they should give you some guidance at least, it isn’t as bad as it looks. Just remain focused and ask everyone you come in contact with, doctors offices, discharge coordinators (maybe late for that), rehab, sounds like she came home direct from hospital rather than to residential rehab not sure why but they must have set up in home rehab who will send out someone to asses her needs and that person is a good one to ask these questions of. Pick their brain!
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It sounds to me like you are actually inquiring about care and financial options to help pay for this with your mother going forward.... It is a quandary to most people.
You do not mention your mother's actual diagnosis; I mention this as depending on what it is you may want to look into what specific diagnosis groups offer ( for example some grants are sometimes available via specific illness groups ( i.e. Alz, Cancer, etc etc). These grants can help at times with caregiving expenses in home etc.
Contact your local Center on Aging for potential referrals; find a competent case manager via the hospital referral or PCP referral and/ or consider conferring with an Elder Law Attorney about financial and on going care options, choices, accountability, responsibility etc.
Be sure that the legal documents are in place such as POA , etc that will enable potential decisions to be made by the person that your mother would want to make decisions for her.
Also, depending on the status of your mother's diagnosis, if she is in continuing decline, you may want to contact a local hospice of your choice to learn more about their potential services to help both your mother and you either now or later down the road.
Peace.
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Social Security Disability benefits are paid to people who worked and then become permanently disabled. Once that person who is receiving disability benefits reaches Social Security’s retirement age, the disability benefits are automatically converted to Social Security Retirement benefits.

To fully understand how this works, you should contact your local Social Security office for answer to this question.
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Medicare is health Insurance do you mean Medicaid?
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Mlynn8660: Perhaps you should contact your mother's social security office if you're talking about SSI.
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It sounds like your mom gets Medicare and her social security benefits already. If you're talking about SSI with Medicaid (a totally different program with Social Security Administration), might be doubtful to get that because she had enough earnings to qualify for regular social security w/Medicare. They use her and/or her spouses earnings to decide if there was a work history with earnings to see if you're eligible for regular social security and medicare. However, if she only gets a small amount of social security (like gross amount of under 914 a month), she might qualify for a little ssi to get her up to that current ssi pay amount of 914 per month. At age 71, 'I think' disability doesn't matter when getting a person to that 914 monthly amount. It would be worth a call to SSA to get the ball rolling by asking the question.

On the other hand, if she gets more money than that already, her social security and medicare stay as is. The disability part comes in when you aren't old enough to retire (age 62 early retirement or your full retirement age..for her should have been 65). Should you become disabled before those ages, you apply for disability to start it earlier than those ages I mentioned.

Not sure, but maybe you are asking about additional funds/medical to help pay for her current medical issues. Medicare will pay for in home nursing and/or help with physical therapy (below waist/legs) or occupational therapy (above waist/arms).

Incontinence products aren't covered by Medicare. If she uses just the pads/panty type liner pads, check out the Sams Member Mark brand overnight incontinence pads. About $25 for a box containing 4 packs of about 30 pads. Best deal I could find for them for my parent. Sams also has adult size wipes with 5 packs in a box costing around $10 per box...again best price I found.

You should be able to go online to the state agency that handles Medicaid applications for aged/disabled people. It's possible your state has some in-home programs that she might qualify for to assist with some help at her home.

The last option would be if she needs nursing home care. A doctor has to say there is medical necessity for her to be in facility care. If she doesn't have enough income to pay for NH, she can apply for Medicaid to help fund that. What she has in the way of assets/bank accounts/other monies will determine if and when she might be eligible. It might be time to see an elder attorney who can tell you if she would be eligible for a Medicaid bed or what assets she would need to use up before they would pay.
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