Selling my mom’s house, Medicaid.

You mention that March is when the mortgage is in jeopardy. Do you expect that you will have cash in hand with a sold house within less than a month? Plus your disability wont go through for 6 months or more. She will still need a lawyer when she sells, and if the house sells that easily. You mention that you can find free land once you get an RV, but how do you both expect to find established medical care if you move around within the state of GA?
As mom gets worse, her care might be beyond what you can do. Mom might still need Medicaid. If she passes on Medicaid, the RV will be gone, her SS disappears and your SSDI will not cover enough.

You are in a tough situation

CM, I would encourage you to do good research on RVs.

From the sounds of it you are looking at getting what is called a Class A or Class C, both have motors and are considered motor vehicles, which means insurance and registration, speaking from personal experience, very expensive to go this route. Not to mention you have to, have to maintain the engine or you and your home can be stranded on the side of a road and you will be without a place to live while it is being repaired. I found having to buckle my house up to run to the grocery store a buttpain. These are very expensive rigs new, so you will be buying used and that means you don't know the history of care, breakdowns, problems etc.

You will be financially better off to look into a travel trailer and a truck that can tow it. Cheaper in every imaginable way and you are not moving house for errands and such, plus, you have a home in the event your motor vehicle needs repair.

If you can't afford the vehicle to tow for a while, there are services that will move them for you. You aren't mobile with that option but, you are not stuck either.

I would encourage you to check into places to park, ie RV parks and some trailer parks allow "rvs". These can be very expensive and many make you pay your own power bill for long term stays, which means more then a few nights, at higher rates.

My mom chose this route and she paid more for her monthly space rent then she did for all of her house bills combined, then she still had all of her house bills, ie electric, cable, water, etc. It was not a financially smart decision and cost her more monthly then she had considered.

So medicaid is only a small consideration in this choice, imo.

CM, it is really important that you realize that IF the home is currently 100% titled in your moms name, if she sold it, 100% of the $ has to be spent by her for her own needs. She can buy another home, she can rent an apt, she can buy an RV, she can buy a car. But whatever she does with the $ has to only be in her name. If she uses any of that house sale $ and buys something which is titled in her & your name, she is essentially gifting you an asset. It will cause her to be ineligible for LTC Medicaid for a period of time based on the value of the asset she transferred to your name. It’s a transfer (of assets) penalty.

Also if she goes into a NH and onto LTC Medicaid to pay for the NH, it has a required attempt to recover all cost paid by the program after she dies from any assets of her Estate. A home or a car would be an asset. It’s done via MERP Medicaid Estate Recovery Program. There are several exemptions and exclusions to recovery. If you did 2+ years of full time caregiving for her, that kept her from entering a NH, that usually is a valid exclusion to recovery. You file for the exemption either before she files an application for LTC Medicaid or done after she dies. It’s is totally dependent on her State as to how this is done. But it allows you - if you are the only heir - to have recovery quashed.

and as a final item, LTC Medicaid has exempt asset maximums. LTC Medicaid allows 1 home & 1 car retained as an exempt asset IF they are under the maximum value for the asset. The $ amount varies by State. For homes tends to be 550K - 750K value range. For autos, it is lower; it could be 25k, could be 35K. Why I’m mentioning this is if mom buys an RV, it will be important to know precisely if her State LTC Medicaid considers an RV to be a “home” or an ”auto”. RVs are not inexpensive. If it’s a 100K RV that she buys and her State considers an RV to fall into “auto” category which has an asset maximum of 35K, she will be deemed over-resourced and will be ineligible.

There are loads of lil details that have to be taken into account for LTC Medicaid eligibility. It’s why so often you hear that elders are often best off having an elder law atty experienced in LTC Medicaid applications doing the filing.

CM, I read your responses below. You say a realtor has a buyer for your mother's house? How much equity does she have? How much will she receive in cash from the sale of the house after the mortgage is paid off, the closing costs, and the realtor's commission?

It seems that instead of buying the RV, she could save that money and, with frugal monthly distributions, she could combine that with her Social Security to pay to rent a smaller place for the two of you to live together while you wait for your disability payments to be approved. Does the math work for that plan?

CM, just read your updated post. The priority needs to be the $500-$700 paid to the mortgage company & asap. You have to - have to - find $ somewhere (your brother, perhaps a faith based charity, like St Vincent de Paul, Jewish Family services & fwiw neither of these require you to be of that faith) to reset the looming foreclosure.

if I’m not mistaken, if a home where in-home hospice is providing services to has received a Foreclosure Notice (due to nonpayment of a mortgage), the hospice has to Notify APS for a facilities placement consultation. If APS gets involved, and the individual, or their family members living in the home, does not seem to have any sort of feasible & do-able plan to solve the foreclosure, then APS can ask the court for an emergency ward of the State status to be placed on the elder. APS could do this for your mom. A temporary or interim guardian is done and they basically take over the decision making for moms care and living situation.

Stuff like this snowballs and fast. You don’t want this to happen if at all possible. Find $ in some way to reset the foreclosure. Then deal with the SW concerns. Every day do something to try to deal with this. Even if it’s small steps…. Like tomorrow a federal Holiday you clear up and out any ot poke expired medications; then Tuesday you speak with yiur brother, etc.

So CM, you have actually filed for SSDI, correct? And you have an attorney dealing with this for you and there is a hearing date, correct?
If so the hospice SW is concerned about your ability to be the required “in the home” caregiver for all the time when someone from the hospice agency is not there. Hospice is a Medicare paid benefit and the hospice agency is getting a set amount of $ each month to provide for their services. But in home hospice has a required sharing of responsibility to be in place for them to be able to be paid by Medicare. There has to be a capable adult or adults in the home who can absolutely be there all the time when hospice is not. Your being “disabled” is a red flag.

I have a suggestion, if I were you I would tell the SW that mom and you as moms POA are looking to find a caregiver to come over to do some caregiving for mom. So that it’s 2 persons, you and this new caregiver. That you are looking into this both on possibly of 1. using some of moms $ for this AND 2. looking into mom applying for a Community Based Medicaid program for IHHS in-home healthcare services eligibility for IhHS to send over a caregiver. AND 3. That you are going to speak with Medciaid about getting an assessment done on mom to see how many hours she might could qualify for.

i know there isn’t the $ for mom to pay for this, THIS IS NOT THE POINT!!! this is all about lessening the valid concerns the hospice SW has on your capabilities as you have filed for disability. The storyline is… You & mom are looking into this and it takes time…… yada yada. If you want to add onto this, you could say that mom is looking into possibly doing an HELOC to be able to have a bit more $. All this is buying you time. It is putting a band aid on the situation. It does NOT mean mom is hiring a caregiver, it does not mean mom is taking out a HELOC…… it means y’all all looking into ways to provide for extra $ and help. That SW has to do her own reporting and if she has concerns well she has to put that down. It could be that last couple of months when she did her visit, she saw a house unkept, or medication askew, or things didn’t look very freshy fresh and you seemed to be struggling due to your own disability. Telling SW you are looking into all this shows you realize there are valid concerns and you are dealing with it. Doing this should give you at least 2 months off the SW radar on moms case being a “problem”.

Personally I would file for mom to get onto a Community based Medicaid In-home program. There will be one. It could be weeks before availability but it shows action on your & moms part to do something. Also I’d drop ever speaking on the idea of moving her into an RV and selling the home. It’s flat too disruptive. What if it takes months to sell it? What if it can’t sell at Fair Market Value which Medicaid expects it to be? If you are disabled, how is all the stuff going to be packed and moved.? I bet the SW views the “move to an RV” as crazy talk. Instead you say that you have reevaluated your moms thoughts on moving to an RV and that it’s not feasible, that you are planning on staying in moms home. If you want to put icing on this cake…. Plant a couple of flowers or bulbs in the front yard as it implies you are taking care of the house and plan a future there. Also take a hard look as to how the house “presents”, so if it’s dirty or cluttered please pls pls try to clean and jettison crap. Stuff like this makes a difference as to the report the hospice SW has to do. A SW is a mandated reprot so has to let authorities know if there are concerns they see.

Not to be harsh, but what this all does is buy you time to hopefully get SSDI so you can afford the home once mom dies & her SS $ keeping the household afloat is gone. It’s a band aid on a problem, not a solution. Keep communication open with the atty so that you are very prepared for that hearing and how to answer any ? that could be asked. Good luck on your hearing.

Yes, selling her house and using the money for an RV will disqualify your mother from Medicaid because it is gifting -- she is giving you the RV to live in after she passes away. That may not seem fair because your intentions are good but it is the reality.

Check into getting SNAP benefits (food stamps). Also you can probably get Meals on Wheels, for your mother and possibly also for yourself.

Is your mother's house paid off? Is it in her name? Does she have a will?

I'm sorry you're going through these challenges.

To be on Hospice your Mom has to be dying. I can see why the hospice SW thinks moving now would be a bad idea. I think what she could do for you is help you apply for Supplimental income so you have money coming in. Then apply for Social Security Disability. You and Mom should be able to get Food stamps. If this SW will not help you with this, go to your Social Services and speak to someone there.

If Mom passes, you lose her Social Security. If she ends up on Medicaid because she is placed in a Nursing Home, you lose her SS because its needed to help pay for her care.

What you need is an Elder Lawyer to help you navigate Medicaid, etc. But I don't think you can afford one. Call Office of Aging to see if there are any Lawyers that will help you for free.

I am so glad you have this social worker who has been honest to warn you of the problems here.
First of all, now that you have the SW, do ask for referral on your own application for SSI benefits. I watched yesterday an excellent film on applying for SSI, and how to do it for mental deficits severe enough to prevent your working. For someone as able to do access and understand the system, it is very doable to get on SSI.
This was a 17 minute film on the exact process. Was on bing videos, their search engine, and I looked under "applying for SSI for mental disability." I hope you can access it, because my copy/pasting of it doesn't seem to work.
This application and approval will help you not only NOW but in future when you don't have mom.

The SW may report you if you make attempt to sell mom's home. And this is why. She may feel mom no longer has the mental capacity to make her own decision, and she may feel that you do not have this capacity either. This may lead her to attempt to make your mom a ward of the state. But I think she will be honest enough to TELL you, if this is the case, and I would discuss it with her.

It seems to me, simply from your note to us here, that you do have a good understand of options for yours and mom's future and for both your protection. I would consider consulting an attorney. I don't know if you are mom's POA or capable of being so or even if mom is currently able to designate you as POA. I did work with a realtor when my brother wished to sell his last place, who was qualified in working with special needs people.

Continue to honestly explore your options. You seem to me capable of doing so. USE that Social Worker now to explore how best to get help and options. I think an elder law attorney who would come to speak with you in the home would be a good start. If you have solid friends or other family members enlist them in helping you as well. It's important that this be done legally, and well done.

That is tricky. Medicaid looks closely at all assets because it wants to recoup money back. They look at all transactions. They can find money you don't even know you have. Maybe seek advice from an attorney in the field.