Mom and Dad have $120,000 in liquid assests, a home ($60,000) and truck and a car ( hers $4,000). Dad cannot pay for the nursing home for an extended period. What can he do to get her qualified for Medicaid in Louisiana. How can he find out prior to putting her into the nursing home if she will be covered for Medicaid.
Spousal Impoverishment
This provision protects married individuals from becoming impoverished if their spouse becomes confined to a nursing home.
It allows the "community spouse" at home, to keep a certain amount of income and assets and still qualify the nursing home spouse for Medicaid. (In Illinois the 2014 amount is $2,739 monthly income and resources of $109,560 in resources. The house certain adjoining property , personal items and one car are excluded assets.)
Assets transferred to any party other than a spouse will automatically activate a 36 month wait for Medicaid eligibility. Assets transfers to a trust activate a 60 month waiting period.
If an adult, 55 years or older, is enrolled in a Medicaid long-term care program, the state must recover amounts spent for Medicaid long-term care service from the estate of the Medicaid recipient. This means the state is required to collect costs from assets in the estate including a home. while a surviving spouse may retain and live in the home, the state is permitted to place a lien on the house and collect the money when it is sold.
If you have money, you are expected to use it for your own care. And couples are treated as a unit. Both of their pensions count toward assets that could be used for Mom. For a couple, applying for Medicaid is too complicated to be a do-it-yourself project. Let a qualified elder law attorney guide you (or guide Dad, actually).
If you are within 5 years of an application, then sorry Charlie, but the application requires a full disclosure of assets and I mean ALL assets - insurance, real property, cash, investments, gifts, the whole ball of wax. You can't gift it away at this point either. Any major changes to funds & assets may cause a penalty period and the delay of Medicaid coverage, during which time you have to find a way to private pay.
I strongly suggest searching this site for "paying for long term care" because there are some great articles on the topic.
If mom & dad had a Long Term Care policy, that will need to be used.
You will need to educate yourself on your state's Medicaid rules via the state DHS website. It is smart to get a copy of the application NOW and see what it's going to ask for, as there is a ton of paperwork to provide for it. The facility where your mom ends up will likely have a Medicaid specialist who will work with you on the application and the timing of its submission.
No, the government doesn't have an interest in impoverishing the spouse, but I can tell you the spousal allowance is not fat and juicy. It will probably not support a lifestyle they're used to. It is very lean.
Medicaid can also pursue cost recovery after the person has died via estate probate, so families are not going to make funds/assets unavailable by designating them for the heirs in the will.
That is what they worked for all their lives, and now it's time to use it.
There are allowances for a spouse & spousal residence, but it's not cushy.
We are in the same boat. Mom didn't financially plan for anything, so we are on the spend down to Medicaid. All her money will be gone by the end and there will be not a penny or splinter left for me to inherit. Which is fine. Mo money, mo problems. It wasn't for me anyway.