Will my stepmother be financially responsible for my dad's care once his insurance money runs out?
Medicaid is the only government program that will pay for long-term care in a nursing home.
The bad news is that the Medicaid rules are extremely complex and confusing. The good news is that through proper planning your step-mother's assets can be protected if your father goes into a nursing home.
Unlike Medicare, for which there are no financial eligibility qualifications, Medicaid has strict financial eligibility requirements. The assets of both a husband and wife are considered in determining eligibility regardless of whether only one of them is going into a nursing home.
The spouse who is going into the nursing home is allowed to keep $2,000 of countable assets. The spouse, who is referred to in the law as the "community spouse" is permitted to keep a "community spouse resource allowance" of up to $104,400.
In addition, the community spouse may also own a home without it affecting the eligibility of the spouse entering the nursing home. When a person applies for Medicaid, the state looks at all of their financial records for the previous five years. Gifts made during that time can have a harmful effect on Medicaid eligibility.
Medicaid planning is a very specialized area of the law. Most lawyers are not specifically knowledgeable in this area of the law. I strongly urge you to contact an Elder Law lawyer who is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys to help you. You can find a NAELA lawyer near you by going to www.naela.org.
Talking to a qualified ElderHealth Attorney is the best she can do. My spouse suffered a stroke 5 yrs ago and 3 attorney's later we are finally getting the best advice. We have filed several documents which separate our community property and if/when spouse goes to a qualified facility that medicaid will pay for, the remaining personal property (i.e., house) will be signed over to the other spouse to make him/her eligible for medicaid, which is allowed in this state.
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