My father is 91. He currently lives in an independent living facility but has several aides that help with his care. He needs more and more care, almost round the clock, and I think in the next few months, I need to consider moving him into an assisted living or nursing home type of situation. I know there are so many different laws regarding getting assistance with Medicare/ Medicaid. Trying to navigate all the different laws myself seems difficult. From what I was reading online, I saw that some people see an elder care attorney to determine benefits/ and or help file for benefits. Does anyone suggest doing this? Do nursing homes typically help with this? My father does have some savings but I am assuming that most of that will go to wherever he goes...
His life savings can be directed to pay for care that he needs to stay in the least restrictive setting, and can also be allocated to pay for the valuable services you provide to him. If you establish a Caregiver Agreement now, payments to you could be accepted by Medicaid as valid transfers, if he applies for eligibility in the future.
An Elder Law Attorney in your state can explain the Medicaid regulations that are relevant to you, and make you aware of programs that can supplement his private payment for services.
If you wait until a nursing home admission is required, the facility business office might offer Medicaid application preparation service at no charge. But the application preparers work for the facility (not you) and they have no duty to make sure your father's interests are first priority.
Since private payment rates are higher than the Medicaid rate, a facility paid application prep service does not have an incentive to protect what remains of your father's life savings.
I had a lawyer because a house was involved and had two people living in it. Plus what the Township had it appraised at, there was no way I was going to get that if I sold. But I did all the work. Mom paid 2 months private pay to the NH, the 3rd month she was on Medicaid. You have to start the process 60 or 90 days before u need Medicaid. In that time you have to cash in any insurance policies that have cash value. Prepay a funeral helps with the spenddown. All paperwork needed has to be to them and facility found. If not done in 90 days, u have to reapply.
If this seems too overwhelming, then u may want a lawyer and Medicaid allows that out of Dads money.
community spouse needing assets to support themselves not in care
gifting that may cause penalty
any jointly held property with family
any insurance policies that may need to be liquidated or NOT
family members that may have claim against Medicaid lien for providing care at home or qualifying disability
assets held in family trust that may not be Medicaid compliant
veterans that may not know of other programs they qualify for
family members that want to set up caregiver agreement to get paid by person without later Medicaid gifting questions and reporting properly
many people do it themselves. I would not perform my own surgery and sometimes the complexity is similar.