Are you sure you want to exit? Your progress will be lost.
Who are you caring for?
Which best describes their mobility?
How well are they maintaining their hygiene?
How are they managing their medications?
Does their living environment pose any safety concerns?
Fall risks, spoiled food, or other threats to wellbeing
Are they experiencing any memory loss?
Which best describes your loved one's social life?
Acknowledgment of Disclosures and Authorization
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
✔
I acknowledge and authorize
✔
I consent to the collection of my consumer health data.*
✔
I consent to the sharing of my consumer health data with qualified home care agencies.*
*If I am consenting on behalf of someone else, I have the proper authorization to do so. By clicking Get My Results, you agree to our Privacy Policy. You also consent to receive calls and texts, which may be autodialed, from us and our customer communities. Your consent is not a condition to using our service. Please visit our Terms of Use. for information about our privacy practices.
Mostly Independent
Your loved one may not require home care or assisted living services at this time. However, continue to monitor their condition for changes and consider occasional in-home care services for help as needed.
Remember, this assessment is not a substitute for professional advice.
Share a few details and we will match you to trusted home care in your area:
My Mom (96) and her funds for her dementia care facility is running out. About 8 months left. Are there agencies we should be contacting for when she runs out of money?
Thanks for all your suggestions. Many things to consider now. I let you all know how things progress. Hope you all have a safe and Happy New Year. Blade1
Blade1, I assume you checked with the AL recently and not just when Mom moved in. In this state many ALs don't accept Medicaid for new residents but will after long-term residents run out of money. That is worth checking first.
As others have pointed out, if Mom can't stay were she is, the next stop is probably a skilled nursing facility.
Good luck to you, and do tell us as this progresses for you. We learn from each other.
Blade, have you considered moving her now? Many places require private pay prior to going on Medicaid. We are looking for a facility with continuum of care with AL for L, and memory care for Mom. Though I think Mom will end up in skilled nursing fairly quickly. While it is against regulations many facilities here require private pay for two years prior to going on Medicaid. And that is not a bad policy. Those on Medicaid benefit from people that private pay, that is what pays the facilities costs.
If mom is 96 and in AL with dementia and the usual age related decline, then my suggestion is that now is the time to start looking for NH/SNF for her to move into before summer 2015. Forget looking for an AL that is on a Medicaid diversion program, at her age she is going to need a NH more sooner than later and you do not way to have to move her again. Personally I would not wait for her to run out of funds but instead look for NH facilities that take Medicaid and do whatever to get her into one within the next 6 months. Even if it means having to do a spend-down of 10 - 20K at the NH to get mom to the point of being impoverished in assets to qualify for Medicaid.
I got my mom to go from IL to NH and totally bypassed the AL stage. It can be done but there may be hurdles in having this done seamlessly.
My suggestions are: - first speak clearly with mom's MD to see if they will write the orders for skilled nursing care needed for her. If so, that is fabulous as you will have to have medical orders for her to go into a NH/SNF & speak with the social worker @ her current AL to see if they have a sister facility that has Medicaid beds and if mom can go there as a "Medicaid Pending" resident. Medicaid Pending is pretty important as it means that for the period of time that her Medicaid application is going through the state approval, that the NH is OK in accepting whatever is her monthly income as her co-pay for her stay @ the NH. Otherwise she will need to be private pay at whatever rate the NH has till she is fully approved by Medicaid. If the current AL has no sister facility that takes Medicaid, then ask the social worker for facilities that do. I have found that the social worker is often much more candid than nursing staff, business office or admissions will ever be - state laws require social workers at facilities, so their jobs are not quite under the whim or geo-politic of the administrator or the DON (director of nursing who usually is the goddess and ruler of the AL & NH)
BUT if her current AL won't write orders needing SNF, then you are going to have to find a MD who will. All NH have a medical director and most of them have an existing private practice. You want to have mom become a patient of the MD who is the medical director of the NH that she will hopefully get moved into. Often the doc's will be the medical director of 2 - 4 NH too. Her medical file will need to show the need for skilled nursing which gets done by having her go & see her new doc every 4 - 6 weeks or so. What all this is doing is establishing a medical history to show the need for skilled nursing care. MD's who are also medical directors of NH know what needs to be in their chart to pass the medical necessity review for medicaid. For my mom, the appointment she had a bad H & H lab result and a 10% weight loss was when she got order for skilled needed. This was about at month 6 of regular visits to her gerontologist. She was able to move into a NH as Medicaid pending within the month. There are some other somewhat simple things that can be done to show skilled needed…..like change Exelon pill to a patch as the patch requires more skill to administer; or have an Rx compounded on site for better swallowing which also needs skill to be done. If mom is relatively healthy as a horse except for her dementia, she may need to be seen every 4 weeks for a few months to be able to get enough items of concern in her chart to show the need for skilled nursing. Keep in mind that most NH admissions are from a hospital discharge to the rehab unit in a NH & then they don't progress in their rehab so they stay in the NH. For those who are in IL or AL, well they don't have the fat medical chart from a hospital discharge to show need for skilled so it requires more creativity to do……
Now when you look at NH be very clear that mom will be applying for Medicaid and that she needs a facility that does admissions as Medicaid Pending. There are many good NH that take Medicaid. Now as mom is in AL, the NH may send out a team (1 nursing & 1 social worker) to do an on-site evaluation of mom at the AL she is at. Done to make sure the NH can provide the level of care needed. This can be tricky if the AL is being hostile about loosing another private pay customer, so you need to let the AL know that you are shopping about for a NH. Really at 96 mom is likely going to need a higher level of care in the near future and the AL knows that.
NH should have a list (1 or maybe 2 pages) of the documents they need to get from you regarding mom's financial situation, her insurance items, citizenship, etc. for review; which in turn the NH submits mom's Medicaid application along with their bill to the state (this is what was done for my mom in TX). NH reviews the financials to see if they would accept her as Pending. For my mom, documents were over 100 pages but a good 30 of that was her old-school life insurance policy from the 1960's as each & every page front & back was required. Mom's pre-need funeral was also old (1980's) and a dz plus pages. The list - well you might as well start now to gather items up. Mom will be getting her awards letters from SS and any retirement this month for what she will be paid in 2015 and those awards letters are needed for Medicaid and then also for the NH to know what to expect as your mom's co-pay or her "SOC" - share of cost to the facility. It is totally do-able but time consuming. Whatever is on the list has to be submitted too. This time of the year (Dec - Jan) is great as all income & interest and other asset related details have paperwork notification or 1099's issued so you keep them for submission when you finally need to do the application. If mom has been spending her assets & income to pay for AL, she should be OK for her application if her income is under your states maximum as it's pretty clear that her "pattern of spending" of her income & assets has been going to so it makes sense that she's finally impoverished at 96 or 97.
There is a caregiver story on this site from Tony Rovere about his adventure in getting his mom on Medicaid that is quite enlightening. Good luck in all this and try to keep your sense of humor going.
By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington.
Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services.
APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid.
We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour.
APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment.
You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints.
Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or ConsumerFeedback@aplaceformom.com to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights.
APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.
I agree that:
A.
I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information").
B.
APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink.
C.
APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site.
D.
If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records.
E.
This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year.
F.
You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
Blade1
As others have pointed out, if Mom can't stay were she is, the next stop is probably a skilled nursing facility.
Good luck to you, and do tell us as this progresses for you. We learn from each other.
I got my mom to go from IL to NH and totally bypassed the AL stage. It can be done but there may be hurdles in having this done seamlessly.
My suggestions are:
- first speak clearly with mom's MD to see if they will write the orders for skilled nursing care needed for her. If so, that is fabulous as you will have to have medical orders for her to go into a NH/SNF & speak with the social worker @ her current AL to see if they have a sister facility that has Medicaid beds and if mom can go there as a "Medicaid Pending" resident. Medicaid Pending is pretty important as it means that for the period of time that her Medicaid application is going through the state approval, that the NH is OK in accepting whatever is her monthly income as her co-pay for her stay @ the NH. Otherwise she will need to be private pay at whatever rate the NH has till she is fully approved by Medicaid. If the current AL has no sister facility that takes Medicaid, then ask the social worker for facilities that do. I have found that the social worker is often much more candid than nursing staff, business office or admissions will ever be - state laws require social workers at facilities, so their jobs are not quite under the whim or geo-politic of the administrator or the DON (director of nursing who usually is the goddess and ruler of the AL & NH)
BUT if her current AL won't write orders needing SNF, then you are going to have to find a MD who will. All NH have a medical director and most of them have an existing private practice. You want to have mom become a patient of the MD who is the medical director of the NH that she will hopefully get moved into. Often the doc's will be the medical director of 2 - 4 NH too. Her medical file will need to show the need for skilled nursing which gets done by having her go & see her new doc every 4 - 6 weeks or so. What all this is doing is establishing a medical history to show the need for skilled nursing care. MD's who are also medical directors of NH know what needs to be in their chart to pass the medical necessity review for medicaid. For my mom, the appointment she had a bad H & H lab result and a 10% weight loss was when she got order for skilled needed. This was about at month 6 of regular visits to her gerontologist. She was able to move into a NH as Medicaid pending within the month. There are some other somewhat simple things that can be done to show skilled needed…..like change Exelon pill to a patch as the patch requires more skill to administer; or have an Rx compounded on site for better swallowing which also needs skill to be done. If mom is relatively healthy as a horse except for her dementia, she may need to be seen every 4 weeks for a few months to be able to get enough items of concern in her chart to show the need for skilled nursing. Keep in mind that most NH admissions are from a hospital discharge to the rehab unit in a NH & then they don't progress in their rehab so they stay in the NH. For those who are in IL or AL, well they don't have the fat medical chart from a hospital discharge to show need for skilled so it requires more creativity to do……
Now when you look at NH be very clear that mom will be applying for Medicaid and that she needs a facility that does admissions as Medicaid Pending. There are many good NH that take Medicaid. Now as mom is in AL, the NH may send out a team (1 nursing & 1 social worker) to do an on-site evaluation of mom at the AL she is at. Done to make sure the NH can provide the level of care needed. This can be tricky if the AL is being hostile about loosing another private pay customer, so you need to let the AL know that you are shopping about for a NH. Really at 96 mom is likely going to need a higher level of care in the near future and the AL knows that.
NH should have a list (1 or maybe 2 pages) of the documents they need to get from you regarding mom's financial situation, her insurance items, citizenship, etc. for review; which in turn the NH submits mom's Medicaid application along with their bill to the state (this is what was done for my mom in TX). NH reviews the financials to see if they would accept her as Pending. For my mom, documents were over 100 pages but a good 30 of that was her old-school life insurance policy from the 1960's as each & every page front & back was required. Mom's pre-need funeral was also old (1980's) and a dz plus pages. The list - well you might as well start now to gather items up. Mom will be getting her awards letters from SS and any retirement this month for what she will be paid in 2015 and those awards letters are needed for Medicaid and then also for the NH to know what to expect as your mom's co-pay or her "SOC" - share of cost to the facility. It is totally do-able but time consuming. Whatever is on the list has to be submitted too. This time of the year (Dec - Jan) is great as all income & interest and other asset related details have paperwork notification or 1099's issued so you keep them for submission when you finally need to do the application. If mom has been spending her assets & income to pay for AL, she should be OK for her application if her income is under your states maximum as it's pretty clear that her "pattern of spending" of her income & assets has been going to so it makes sense that she's finally impoverished at 96 or 97.
There is a caregiver story on this site from Tony Rovere about his adventure in getting his mom on Medicaid that is quite enlightening. Good luck in all this and try to keep your sense of humor going.