Medicaid / Asset Protection

Paying for Long-Term Care

Long term care, also called custodial care, is the living arrangements that include nursing home care, assisted living facility care, and some at home care circumstances. Not included is the up to 100 days available from Medicare for rehabilitative skilled care that may be provided in the same facility. 
           
Long term care  is paid for in one or a combination of three ways:

• Long-term care insurance
• Private Funds
• Medicaid

If you have assets worth protecting, are young and healthy enough to qualify and can afford the premiums, long term care insurance may be your best option. Otherwise, you will be required to draw from your own resources or Medicaid for payment of services.

THE BASICS

Many courts have commented that Federal Medicaid laws are the most complicated laws that have ever been put into effect by Congress with the exception of the Internal Revenue Code. In addition, Florida has many special laws, rules, regulations and interpretations that increase the confusion.

Achieving Medicaid eligibility can be an overwhelming challenge for anyone, even for attorneys who practice in this area every day! Yet, a knowledgeable elder law attorney can provide proper guidance when navigating this area. With that help the rewards can be great.

In Florida there are a number of different Medicaid programs including a long-term care assistance program for the financially needy. If certain eligibility criteria are met, Medicaid virtually absorbs the entire cost of nursing home care that exceeds the resident's income. The income amount that must be paid to the facility depends upon the resident's marital status and the spouse's needs.

PROTECT THE SPOUSE

In Medicaid terminology, when there is a married couple, the spouse in the nursing home is called the Institutionalized Spouse and the spouse staying at home is called the Community Spouse.
                       
A married couple's assets are all considered together. It does not matter if all the assets are held jointly or separately in each spouse's name. Some assets can be specifically exempt for the Community Spouse, such as a home  and its contents, a vehicle, and prepaid funerals as long as they meet certain criteria.

When the Institutionalized Spouse goes into the nursing home, that person's countable assets must be less than $2,000, but the community spouse is entitled to keep much more. That amount changes each January. 
                       
The Medicaid laws, regulations, interpretations and applications are  complicated. The typical lay person is unable to determine what to do. Most people think their only option is to spend their life savings before they will be eligible to obtain Medicaid. But, if couples avail themselves of advice from attorneys who work in this area, they will find that it may be possible to save many dollars.

Although the basic rules allow a Community Spouse to protect a certain amount of countable resources, this is, in many cases, a fraction of what could have been preserved for the Community Spouse or the family if proper planning strategies were followed.

A knowledgeable attorney frequently can have the protected resource amount for the Community Spouse increased to a level that would be far above what the lay person would obtain, simply because the lay person does not know the laws and how to protect his or her rights to avoid spousal impoverishment.

There are several money saving planning strategies that may be considered. In order to develop a strategy a thorough review of the couple's circumstances must first be done.

For Medicaid advice to be appropriate the needed relevant facts about the couple include:

• Age, medical condition, mental condition, lifestyle, prognosis, and desires of each spouse
• All of the couple's assets, ownership of each asset, values and tax cost basis.
• All income sources, amounts and survivorship rights.
• Full understanding of each spouse's relatives.
• Potential for veteran's benefits, and much more.