I am often contacted by someone whose elderly spouse or parent is being discharged from the hospital with a doctor's certification that the patient has fewer than six months to live. The discharge staff at the hospital is recommending that the patient enroll in hospice care. The spouse or adult child is concerned about how he or she is going to pay for hospice care. While the patient was in the hospital, Medicare was paying the bills.
Medicaid Pre-Planning is a process of using legal techniques to transfer assets to your spouse or children or other beneficiaries, or to otherwise cause the assets to be exempt from consideration in qualifying for Medicaid. These techniques (1) preserve these assets for your heirs, (2) while allowing you to maintain a certain degree of control while you are still living, and (3) allow you to qualify for Medicaid coverage much sooner than if your assets were just spent down.
Many people are vaguely aware that Medicaid (not to be confused with Medicare) can collect from decedent's estates for amounts paid for the decedent's care during lifetime. What they do not know is that state laws on this vary widely. This is because Medicaid is a federal-state partnership program, and the federal laws governing the Medicaid program give states some latitude in designing their estate recovery programs. Some states are "standard recovery" states and some states are "expanded recovery" states, in the parlance used by elder law attorneys.
Traditionally, Medicaid has paid for long-term care in a nursing home, but because most individuals would rather be cared for at home and home care is cheaper, all 50 states now have Medicaid programs that offer at least some home care. In some states, even family members can get paid for provi...
If your spouse has assets, it is likely that Medicare will take them into consideration. Medicaid is likely to ignore any spousal agreements and consider the assets of each spouse when determining eligibility, according to My San Antonio in "Protecting separate assets from Medicaid."
If you end up needing Medicaid, the government will look closely at your assets. There are some ways around the problem of having assets and needing Medicaid. An irrevocable trust is one of the answers.
Medicaid is a possibility, if retirement money runs out. However, the program is aimed at helping the poor. When many Americans consider the possibility of long-term care in a nursing home and look to insurance, they find that insurance is often difficult to obtain and afford. Medicaid is a...
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