Friend and brother-in-law is at end of his life due to cancer, and hospice claims they can seize all his assets which is very little except a $100K 401K plan. Is this true? I believe the 401K money should be protected and used for all estate settlement costs including executor help.
However, if your friend/brother-in-law is LIVING at a hospice facility or nursing home where hospice services outlined above are being provided, the separate charges for room and board are NOT provided under Part A benefit by Medicare. Living expenses still have to be paid like you would pay rent and food living at home. An individual caregiver or 24/7 attendant would have to be paid for. These are either private pay by the person receiving care or their family (which is what your friend's 401K funds of $100,000 would be used for) or Medicaid paid (which your friend would need to be low income and low assets - under $2000 - to qualify for). If your friend/brother-in-law is married, that might alter how the 401K assets are "spent down" (not seized - they don't take your money from you, but Medicaid does require that you pay for services that you have assets to cover before the state and federal government pay for care). It's worth finding out if it's the hospice company or Medicaid that is talking about the money to be spent-down. You need a lawyer familiar with Medicaid and elder care and if high level of care in medical facility is required for a longer time, there will not be an estate to help executor.
Now, if your brother-in-law has applied for Medicaid [different from Medicare], then Medicaid will require savings to be use for his care before Medicaid kicks in.
As with freqflyer and guestshopadmin, I am in complete agreement.
I olwould add "immediate, urgent, eldercare lawyer consult & assistance is needed". Your friend/brother-in-law and his family could very well loose everything, when it is possible to safeguard, or at the very least, slow the drain of funds and protect assets now-before it's too late.
So sorry that you and your family are facing this.
As others have said, he & whomever is his dpoa needs to get with an elder law atty asap, like this this week make calls and schedule an appt.
I'm going to take a guess..... he's been discharged from hospital & now in a free-standing in-unit hospice and about to enter 3rd week there?? Is that it?
If so, & he's over 65 & has Medicare, any post hospitalization Medicare benefit is phasing out. In order for him to stay at in unit hospice, there needs to be a payment stream established. Either private pay or Medicaid unless he has a rare secondary Medicare or LTC policy that covers inunit hospice. (He won't be eligible for Medicaid until he's at 2k in assets.) Now family can opt to take him home and have at home hospice done & paid by Medicare (so no room & board). But family will be responsible for all care outside of the limited time (3 or 4 day a week visits of abt 3 - 4 hrs) that hospice is there.
If he's under 65, then whatever the terms are of his health insurance policy will determine if & how hospice paid. And it too is ending coverage.
Both my mil (80's on Medicaid & in NH) & oldest aunt (90's private pay & in IL) went to in unit hospice following Medicare paid hospitalization. In visiting & speaking with others at hospice, the majority of patients were younger in 30's or 40's end stage cancer patients on black box drugs with serious medication management (like Fentanyl). Most seemed to have been at home but care got beyond what family could deal with; maybe under half with better employer private insurance & the rest private pay. If this sounds like what the situation is, thank goodness he has a he 401k to draw from.
Now the actual costs paid by executor (atty fees, court filing costs, taxes paid, property costs paid, etc.) can themselves become a claim against the estate. But just how paid dependent on your states probate laws. Often executor time to do the whatever's out is out of a sense of duty without hourly fee paid for compensation.
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