Medicaid
The rules about home ownership and Medicaid often confuse families. Here are the basics: A person can own a home and qualify for Medicaid, BUT that home may be vulnerable to Estate Recovery after the person dies. In other words, a nursing home resident can own a home and still get Medicaid benefits. The home…
Read More I am still so surprised by how much misinformation there is about Medicaid’s Look Back Period. Is it 3 years? Is it 30 months? What exactly is the Medicaid Look Back Period? As we all know, Medicaid is a means-tested program that provides health insurance to those who qualify for it. That is, you…
Read More It is true that Medicaid is intended to be health insurance for the very poor. It is also true that Medicaid has become the default long-term care insurance payer for millions of middle class families. In the Metro Atlanta area, nursing home costs can run $10,000/month. With such high costs, it is no wonder that…
Read More For married couples, updating wills and beneficiary designations are important parts of Medicaid planning. Most of our clients have “I Love You” wills that leave everything to their spouse after their death. Likewise, their assets have their spouses as the Payable on Death Beneficiaries. This can be a huge issue if the spouse is receiving…
Read More Medicaid’s rules for eligibility are complex and there are so many misunderstandings. Families often mistakenly believe that adding more account holders to the Medicaid applicant’s bank account will reduce their assets. We often hear things like this, “Well, I added myself to Momma’s checking account last year, so won’t Medicaid look at only ½ of…
Read More Money, Death, and Medicaid—topics very few want to discuss. When it comes to planning ahead for retirement, long-term care needs or death, I have come to learn that few families ever approach these topics. Most of our families come to us in crisis – they have insufficient funds for retirement, no plan for their long-term…
Read More We often hear families talk about “Medicaid Nursing Homes” as if there are nursing homes in Georgia that are for residents relying on Medicaid. There is a fear behind this assumption that Medicaid beneficiaries are relegated to terrible nursing homes. Fortunately, this is a myth. Most nursing homes in Metro Atlanta are dual-certified for Medicare…
Read More Are retirement plans counted towards the $2,000 Medicaid limit? I have been told that my mom does not qualify for Medicaid because of her 401(k) plan. I’ve also been told that she can keep that fund and still get Medicaid. What do I do? I almost cashed her plan out last week. The rules about…
Read More To qualify for nursing home Medicaid, applicants must pass some fairly strict tests on the amount of assets they own. While the Medicaid rules themselves are complicated and tricky, it’s safe to say that a single person will qualify for Medicaid as long as he/she has only exempt assets plus a small amount of cash…
Read More I want to look at the case we mentioned last week again: Sarah applied for Medicaid on behalf of her father, Don. Don owned a home that he placed in an irrevocable trust in 2014. When he first moved to the nursing home, he had about $85,000 in his checking account and a few certificates…
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