Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't they do the deal where they essentially sign over their house to the nursing home and once the value from that is gone, then they would be medicaid eligible? I know family friends have done this. They essentially have to run through all of their assets.

My mother is still in very good health and young (unde 70). I consider my father young at 71 but he has never been in great shape due to a chronic illness. I am alarmed at the rapid decrease in his health. If they run through all their assets how does my mom live?

She comes to live with you. If you don't have long-term care insurance, spending your own money is the only way to finance this until there is no money left. Will medicare pay for even a part time home health aid and you and they can fill in the rest? It is a tremendous financial problem for a lot of families.

Before you get to this point, though, make sure you've talked to the social workers at the hospital to find out if there are any other options.

My friend has kept their parents at respite stays in NJ for short duration of time as she was out of city for few weeks and there is no one else to take care of her elder parents then she finally decided to keep them at senior housing. She researched so much before keeping her parents to be there and when I asked for her review she gave me positive feedback about these senior housings.

Contact an elder law attorney. We used Kelly Thompson in Arlington. Spend the money to talk to her for an hour or two.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: - First things first: I know it is tough, but you have to calm down, don't panic. Think things through. You feel pressured and rightly so, but you need to take the time to be the best informed advocate of your parent.

- Contact your local office of aging. Get an appointment. Talk to the social worker there. See what in-home services they can provide your dad IF he were to come home. DO NOT TELL THE HOSPITAL THAT THIS IS AN OPTION!!!

- The hospital should have assigned your dad a social worker, make that person do their job and help you figure out the options available to your dad. Keep in mind that they work for the hospital, so still do not tell them that going home is even a remote option. Let them TELL YOU what the options are.

- The hospital wants him out, they want his bed. They cannot kick him out if he is immobile and has no where to go and no assurance that he is going somehwere he will get care. You need to make it very clear that he cannot go to your house and cannot go home. 'Your mom is elderly and cannot care for him'
- Again: Make the hospital social worker do his/her job

- Apply for medicaid, it is not easy, and your dad needs to basically be flat broke.

- Some nursing homes will take you medicaid pending
- DO NOT SIGN OVER YOUR PARENTS' HOUSE! That is CRAZYYYY! You need to think of the long term future, your mom needs to have somewhere to live.

- Do not believe the nursing homes regarding your parents' house and assets. They want to get paid. Medicaid cannot take your parents' house, if your mom is living in it.

- I REPEAT: THE HOSPITAL CANNOT KICK OUT YOUR DAD IF HE HAS NO WHERE TO GO TO GET CARE!!
BTDT -- and I made them wait, they even wanted my parent out so bad they finally did a psych eval to test his competency, so they could legally release my parent.

- Good Luck!

Forgot to mention regarding medicaid, your dad cannot start signing over assests, giving money to you or your siblings. Medicaid sees that as fraud and it will disqualify him.

Yup. You have to be savvy to defraud Medicaid. I had a former coworker that started the process of hiding assets about 5 years before Mom moved to a skilled nursing facility

Wow.. Your coworker is an evil, freeloading twat.

PP here. You don't see me disagreeing!! There were 4 daughters and were savvy enough to have things signed over, "sell" the house for WAY below market value (on paper) to a grandchild, give generous "gifts" to the DD's and more. Then Mom qualified for welfare (that's what Medicaid is, people) and the taxpayers paid for 3 years of nursing home care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He gets the care he needs until he runs out of money, and then medicaid pays. He needs to move to a facility which accepts medicaid. They probably now need to live separately. As a couple they only have to spend 50% of their assets on his care. You mother will not be destitute. They will spend thru their assets, that's what happens.

STOP SAYING THATTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!
People please get educated!
Medicaid is a program to which you have to apply!!!! It is not a given!
And people can be broker than a joke and get denied!!!!@
What the heck in life just freaking kicks in!!
I know folks mean well, but this advice is just bad and if people follow it they will be in a world of trouble.

Calm down and understand that posters write that as shorthand for if someone becomes truly destitute and they have no other way to pay, then there is a process on can go through in order to have Medicaid pay for a nursing home.

http://www.medicare.gov/what-medicare-covers/part-a/paying-for-nursing-home-care.html

Yes, but this poster is exactly right. I hate the "and then Medicaid kicks in" mindset, as if all you have to do is sit back and wait for the dollars to start flowing. This is very misleading.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The while thread is about long term nursing hone care so why would I be talking about medicaid for for sonething else. ?
I was not talking about Medicaid pending from home. You can be in the hospital or rehab and start the process. Yes, different states have different process and different regulations.
And yes people can be in the nursing home Medicaid pending and be denied.
And I did not imply that you were worried about filial support issues, I was responding to comment about nursing homes not being able to come after the family for money, which is in some places they are able to do.

P. S. : There is no such thing as long-term Medicaid. There is just Medicaid and whether or not you qualify for it to cover long term care.
And some states have drastically reduced Medicaid benefits, mostly because they hate President and the Affordable Care Act.

Yes, there is - in Maryland. You apply for regular medicaid through the county office and long term care medicaid through aging and disability. There are two separate programs. My MIL was denied regular medicaid due to income (under $1000 a month) but got long term care.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The while thread is about long term nursing hone care so why would I be talking about medicaid for for sonething else. ?
I was not talking about Medicaid pending from home. You can be in the hospital or rehab and start the process. Yes, different states have different process and different regulations.
And yes people can be in the nursing home Medicaid pending and be denied.
And I did not imply that you were worried about filial support issues, I was responding to comment about nursing homes not being able to come after the family for money, which is in some places they are able to do.

You seem very angry when there's no need to be.

What was angry about this, there were not even any exclamation points or caps. You seem to be reading things that are not there.

Anonymous wrote:The while thread is about long term nursing hone care so why would I be talking about medicaid for for sonething else. ?
I was not talking about Medicaid pending from home. You can be in the hospital or rehab and start the process. Yes, different states have different process and different regulations.
And yes people can be in the nursing home Medicaid pending and be denied.
And I did not imply that you were worried about filial support issues, I was responding to comment about nursing homes not being able to come after the family for money, which is in some places they are able to do.

You seem very angry when there's no need to be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He gets the care he needs until he runs out of money, and then medicaid pays. He needs to move to a facility which accepts medicaid. They probably now need to live separately. As a couple they only have to spend 50% of their assets on his care. You mother will not be destitute. They will spend thru their assets, that's what happens.

STOP SAYING THATTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!
People please get educated!
Medicaid is a program to which you have to apply!!!! It is not a given!
And people can be broker than a joke and get denied!!!!@
What the heck in life just freaking kicks in!!
I know folks mean well, but this advice is just bad and if people follow it they will be in a world of trouble.

Calm down and understand that posters write that as shorthand for if someone becomes truly destitute and they have no other way to pay, then there is a process on can go through in order to have Medicaid pay for a nursing home.

http://www.medicare.gov/what-medicare-covers/part-a/paying-for-nursing-home-care.html

I said that you have to apply and that yes, you can be destitute and Medicaid application will still be denied for some reason . It can happen!

Also, small group homes/ALFs may be more affordable than your standard nursing home. There are organizations that help place people, like A Place for Mom. One more thing about home care... when they tell you your Dad needs 24/7 care, that doesn't necessarily mean he needs a private hire caregiver 24/7. ask yourself what part of the care can your mom do and what can't she? The parts of the care that she can't, when would he need help with those things? Could you do just 8 hrs/day? 4 in the morning and 4 in the evening? Live-in care is cheaper than paying for 2, 12 hour shifts. A companion may work over a CNA. This is why it would be helpful to talk through with a professional what his care would look like at home and what community resources are out there to help.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He gets the care he needs until he runs out of money, and then medicaid pays. He needs to move to a facility which accepts medicaid. They probably now need to live separately. As a couple they only have to spend 50% of their assets on his care. You mother will not be destitute. They will spend thru their assets, that's what happens.

STOP SAYING THATTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!
People please get educated!
Medicaid is a program to which you have to apply!!!! It is not a given!
And people can be broker than a joke and get denied!!!!@
What the heck in life just freaking kicks in!!
I know folks mean well, but this advice is just bad and if people follow it they will be in a world of trouble.

Calm down and understand that posters write that as shorthand for if someone becomes truly destitute and they have no other way to pay, then there is a process on can go through in order to have Medicaid pay for a nursing home.

http://www.medicare.gov/what-medicare-covers/part-a/paying-for-nursing-home-care.html

Anonymous wrote:The while thread is about long term nursing hone care so why would I be talking about medicaid for for sonething else. ?
I was not talking about Medicaid pending from home. You can be in the hospital or rehab and start the process. Yes, different states have different process and different regulations.
And yes people can be in the nursing home Medicaid pending and be denied.
And I did not imply that you were worried about filial support issues, I was responding to comment about nursing homes not being able to come after the family for money, which is in some places they are able to do.

P. S. : There is no such thing as long-term Medicaid. There is just Medicaid and whether or not you qualify for it to cover long term care.
And some states have drastically reduced Medicaid benefits, mostly because they hate President and the Affordable Care Act.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: - First things first: I know it is tough, but you have to calm down, don't panic. Think things through. You feel pressured and rightly so, but you need to take the time to be the best informed advocate of your parent.

- Contact your local office of aging. Get an appointment. Talk to the social worker there. See what in-home services they can provide your dad IF he were to come home. DO NOT TELL THE HOSPITAL THAT THIS IS AN OPTION!!!

- The hospital should have assigned your dad a social worker, make that person do their job and help you figure out the options available to your dad. Keep in mind that they work for the hospital, so still do not tell them that going home is even a remote option. Let them TELL YOU what the options are.

- The hospital wants him out, they want his bed. They cannot kick him out if he is immobile and has no where to go and no assurance that he is going somehwere he will get care. You need to make it very clear that he cannot go to your house and cannot go home. 'Your mom is elderly and cannot care for him'
- Again: Make the hospital social worker do his/her job

- Apply for medicaid, it is not easy, and your dad needs to basically be flat broke.

- Some nursing homes will take you medicaid pending
- DO NOT SIGN OVER YOUR PARENTS' HOUSE! That is CRAZYYYY! You need to think of the long term future, your mom needs to have somewhere to live.

- Do not believe the nursing homes regarding your parents' house and assets. They want to get paid. Medicaid cannot take your parents' house, if your mom is living in it.

- I REPEAT: THE HOSPITAL CANNOT KICK OUT YOUR DAD IF HE HAS NO WHERE TO GO TO GET CARE!!
BTDT -- and I made them wait, they even wanted my parent out so bad they finally did a psych eval to test his competency, so they could legally release my parent.

- Good Luck!

Forgot to mention regarding medicaid, your dad cannot start signing over assests, giving money to you or your siblings. Medicaid sees that as fraud and it will disqualify him.

Yup. You have to be savvy to defraud Medicaid. I had a former coworker that started the process of hiding assets about 5 years before Mom moved to a skilled nursing facility

Wow.. Your coworker is an evil, freeloading twat.

Nope the poster with the coworker but no he/she was not an "evil, freeloading twat". This is something that is done routinely. It's usually not called "hiding" but "protecting" assets.

I would find out if hospice care is available. At home, they would provide a lot of support, although you would still need to cover the daily care needs somehow. People piece together care all the time, between family and private care to help with costs. Even if your Dad needs assistance with everything, there may be more things than you think that your mom or another family is able to provide, and then just fill in the gaps. Don't panic, I work in the medical field and see people find a way all of the time. I know you said they can't afford 8k/mo but would not qualify for Medicaid. Is that due to assests or income or both? Many people's initial reaction is that they cannot afford the cost of care, but do you actually know the specifics of your parents' financial situation? Have someone help them look at their finances. Sometimes you can pull LIfe insurance out before death. What is the prognosis, do they know? That will matter in financial and care planning. May be worth getting a geriatric case manager involved. Look into FMLA to help with care. Is there any family member who can take leave from work to become a caregiver? There is no magic answer, no free care in this country, so you will probably find a solution that will work, but may not be ideal. If it were my family member, I'd try to go the home route first. I totally disagree with not telling the hospital SW about going home. How will they help then? I get what PP was getting at... but if you don't let them know what the options are for you they won't be able to get the resources you need, he will just be sent to a skilled nursing or rehab center (which is covered by insurance for short-term, ST varies based on his insurance and functional potentional) and that may not be the best thing for him or your family.

Anonymous wrote:Filial support laws have been used only a handful of times. No one is going to come after you for 8000 a month for your parents care. The only thing that medicaid look into is the transfer of assets from parents to kids - if this has been done in a certain timeframe then they can - rightly- come after you for that.

What arecyou talking about? Filial support laws are not in place to recover Medicaid fraud, it's for nursing homes and care facilities to recover payment.
And yes, they have only been used a handful of times, but a peruse person would want to know what they are and if they have them in their state.
PA nursing home came after a guy for more than 100,000 dollars .