Medicaid Crisis Planning
The risk of being in a nursing home is that the expense of being there will exhaust all family resources. Is there something that can be done ahead of time, before the expense is incurred, to avoid draining the family bank? To understand what can be done ahead of time, one must also have a basic understanding of Medicaid, the program administered by individual state governments and funded by the federal government; it will pay for nursing home expenses but only after family resources are exhausted or nearly exhausted. Needless to say, like any government program, the rules and regulations on what must be spent and what is exempt are extremely complex; it suffices to say that all assets are at some risk.
If the government will pay for my nursing home expense if I have little or nothing, why don’t I just give it away and then apply? Giving your property away is a good strategy; the critical issue, however, is the timing of the gifts. The Medicaid administrators will always look at what has been given away over the five years prior to the Medicaid application. Any gift (and that term is broadly interpreted) made during that time will result in a penalty period based on a prescribed calculation. If you have given away all your assets and if you cannot qualify for Medicaid because you are in the penalty period, how then will you pay the nursing home?
For a detailed explanation of What and Why, please click on the two links below:
If the government will pay for my nursing home expense if I have little or nothing, why don’t I just give it away and then apply? Giving your property away is a good strategy; the critical issue, however, is the timing of the gifts. The Medicaid administrators will always look at what has been given away over the five years prior to the Medicaid application. Any gift (and that term is broadly interpreted) made during that time will result in a penalty period based on a prescribed calculation. If you have given away all your assets and if you cannot qualify for Medicaid because you are in the penalty period, how then will you pay the nursing home?
For a detailed explanation of What and Why, please click on the two links below:
Plan Your Care, Care for Your Plan -- Health Proxies and More
a full-length webinar presented by Chesapeake Legal Counsel
(click here to download the accompanying handout, or here for a larger format version; click here to download a paper on Healthcare Guidelines; click here to download a Sample Power of Attorney)
a full-length webinar presented by Chesapeake Legal Counsel
(click here to download the accompanying handout, or here for a larger format version; click here to download a paper on Healthcare Guidelines; click here to download a Sample Power of Attorney)