Medicaid, veteran's home and payments to nursing home are more than what my parents make. What do we do?

I skimmed the responses.

I would say that Medicaid got wrong info. Not sure how VA works but when you receive Medicaid you have no money other than the Medicaid cap of 2k (in my state) and that cannot be touched to pay for care in a NH. As said, a PNA is set up for the $50 allowed (depending on state) deducted from SS. With my Mom, she brought in 1700 with SS and pension, less $50, all the NH received was $1650 with Medicaid paying their share. Someone has given Medicaid the wrong figures. Your parents can't pay more than they receive. And you are not responsible for the difference.

Contact your local VA, or where your husband went through intake and processing, find out what his assigned team (designated by color) is, and ask to speak to the social worker.   I've found them to be very helpful and experienced, and might be able to offer some insights into other VA benefits to help you.

Sounds like you've got a lot on your plate right now, and unfortunately, it's not food.

You can also check out this site for VA caregiver benefits; I don't know if any would help, but it's worth exploring.

https://www.va.gov/family-member-benefits/comprehensive-assistance-for-family-caregivers/

Good luck.  

Oh, and if you can't get info from the SW, contact one of the service organizations such as VFW  or American Legion; in my area, they have offices in the large VA hospital center, and have excellent insight into what the VA can offer.

LTC Medicaid is “at need eligibility”, both financial & medical. Your mom has been deemed eligible for both. So your dads is pending due to what? Is it issues with him being “at need” medically or “at need” financially? It’s different issues in how to resolve. I bet it’s medical as thier $ was looked at in total as their a married couple. For medical “at need” the NH is gonna need to take the lead on this as its items needed or missing from thier health chart that is the glitch, ime. The DON (director of nursing & the goddess ruler imho) usually takes the lead in this.

Do you know what the PNA / personal needs allowance is for your parents state? For most states, it’s $50 or $ 60 mo. Outside of the PNA, all the rest of thier SS$ is required to be a copay each month to NH if it’s that it’s a couple both in a NH.
If they are getting VA benefits, that should pay an additional $90 mo. It is similar to PNA, in that its $ that they can keep. $ like this can either go into a trust acct at the NH that Dpoa can go and draw from or kept in elders bank account if Dpoa is writing a ck (from elders bank acct) to the NH each mo for the copay for each of them.

I’m not sure if it’s just the actual veteran who gets $90 or the vet and the spouse as well. This is something to clearly ask the Medicaid & VA caseworker for your folks applications.
Whatever the case the PNA$ and VA$ is it for any flexible $ for them. Between Beauty & barber Shoppe & incidentals for them (clothing & toiletries) it uses up,all the PNA & VA $. If NH charges for cable & phone, it magically! is the PNA $.
There really isn’t $ to pay old bills.

On existing bill, has each paid basically almost all each of thier SS$ to facility since they moved there in July? 4 mos. of SS$.
So if combined (SSA & VA) they get $1800 a month, & if it’s $50 PNA & only dad gets VA $90, that would pretty much mean that each month they do a copay of $1610 each mo. $1800 - $50 -$50 -$90 = $1610 x 4 = $ 6440 to the NH as the Medicaid required copay?
Did each of them do their full copay?
I’d suggest you look to see if this happened. Copay is nonnegotiable.

I will say this, facilities imho really tend to gloss over copay stuff. Family is often gobsmacked by copay & have been blithely paying their parents bills, like credit card or insurance premiums, from parents monthly SSA $. NH often don’t make it clear that it’s due from day 1 of Medicaid application, & NOT that it starts when they actually get accepted by Medicaid. (1 of the issues is kinda seems that legally they can’t require copay till Medicaid clears as you can’t require a copay if not technically on a program.) So long story short, if it hasn’t been paid, once they clear Medicaid there's a hefty copay due & their $ is gone as you paid thier CC, insurance, utilities, etc. from their banking.
Could this be what possibly happened?
If so, Dpoa is imho just going to have to gut up & pay copay due from their own resources. Should not have paid CC, etc. from parents checking account. Info was in Medicaid application. That it wasnt clear, doesn’t matter. Yeah I know it’s harsh but that’s what the regs are. & yeah the NH are weasels on this.

Now after all this & you’ve gone thru all financials, if the SSA figures are wrong for how Medicaid determined copay, you can do an appeal.
Right now is time SSA sends out “awards statement” that show to the penny what SSA pays ea of them. That is what copay will be based on if it’s only SS that they get mo. income from. Look to see if it makes sense for the billing.

Medicaid doesn’t care abt debt OR elders paying on thier debt.
If they default, not Medicaids problem.
Medicaid is all abt assets AND having assets be a copay ea mo with no more than combined 3K in nonexempt assets for couples if both in a NH on LTC Medicaid.

It sounds like an administration error.

Get an appointment scheduled to get it sorted out.

Take a deep breath or 5 or 10 and call asking for help. Obviously there is some error that can be fixed. Request a face to face with whomever can figure out what got mixed up.

Best of luck getting someone competent and willing to help.

Someone will have now to have access to their financial assets/records in order to decide how all this can work out. Their assets will be spent down to the level required for Medicaid to kick in what they will pay. As to the home I am assuming (??????) that they accept medicaid after all their assets, other than the small amount they are able to keep, is spent? You need to find out.
Someone in the family should now take over as POA or conservator for their assets and payments.
You are almost certainly correct that the credit card debt should just be ignored at this point, sadly, as this kind of debt costs us ALL one way or another.
Were I you I would see an Elder Law Attorney now for some answers, because you need answers on both POA, whether it CAN be done now, or whether you need to be appointed guardian, and as regards what should be paid out of what and how things should be arranged. You have two elders here with a complicated case and nothing in place. Not easily or quickly solved I would imagine.
Start by seeing the Social Worker through the veteran's home, tell him or her you are going to see a lawyer and right now are not even very clear on what questions to ask. Ask the Social Worker if there is an easy way to become guardian (sometimes they can expedite temporary guardianship with a call to a judge.
What is certain is that your parents will now be spending down their assets entirely whatever they are.
Do not pay anything with YOUR NAME on things nor SIGN ANYTHING with your name. This could end in your being financial responsible and in a whole nightmare world. You really need good and competent advice now. Good luck.