Elderly - Medicaid - Nursing Home - HELP!

First what are you concerns with Medicaid and her going into a nursing home?? Are you concerned she won't receive the proper care because she has medicaid or are you worried about something completely different?

The nursing home they have chosen is great.

I/we don't like the idea of Medicaid - I've heard some really bad things about it - they take the house, you can't have a thing - he's going to lose it all to Medicaid, have to sell everything they own - that kind of stuff. I mean, they don't have much, anyway, but we don't want him in the poorhouse over this.

I can't give you any details about what specifically happens. But I can tell you not to panic because 95% (if not more) of nursing home residents are on medicare/medicaid. So I do not think it can be that terrible. Good luck, situations like that are never an easy transition. But all will work out.

It's doubtful that father-in-law will go to the poorhouse or loose the family home.

Medicaid is a program of last resort for those without other means to provide for long-term care needs, since the govt has limited resources there are limits on assets used to determine who can get medicaid support. The State DOES ALLOW for certain asset transfers from the medicaid applicant to a spouse or disabled child. The goal of the State is not to increase the welfare rolls further.

The State will review the applicant's assets and any transfers of assets within the last 5 years. The state has a decent brochure describing proper and improper asset transfers and the processing of qualifying for medicaid. You can find a link at: http://www.jfs.ohio.gov/ohp/consumers/institutional.stm

After reviewing that you should to seek qualified counsel. You might start you search for an eldercare attorney by looking at NAELA's website: http://www.naela.org/About_QandA.aspx?Internal=true

Good Luck!

My great-uncle wasn't on medicaid and he had to sign over everything he owned to my grandma and aunt or it would have gone to the nursing home.

He was very wealthy, so he just transferred everything into my grandma's and aunt's names, and they paid his bill for him, so it's not just a medicaid thing.

After some further research a nursing home can sell tenants assets to cover their bill for staying which can range from 50,000 to 60,000 in some of the better nursing homes, but that has nothing to do with medicare, who should cover the costs.

Your father in law won't lose it all, he'll keep the house and bank accounts and car. When a single person goes on medicaid they will be pretty much wiped out, but the spouse of someone in medicaid will not suffer so much.

THANK YOU, everyone.

BTW, has anyone heard of AMIS or maybe its Eames (or similar business)? Supposedly they are attorneys that handle Medicaid?

michael43551 your first instincts are absolutely correct...get thee to a lawyer quickly. I've been down that road with immediate family, and the nursing home has no qualms regarding billing you. You need professional advice regarding how to play the medicaid game...the nursing home and the government play it every day - to win.

We considered Medicaid when my father had his heart attack, and went to a nursing home to recover. My mother (who was in her late 70's at the time) could not take care of him alone (he was becoming senile, not Alzheimer's, and would tend to wonder, or be combative). I was able to retire, and spent my days sitting by him at the TV. He had to be watched every minute. Even the best nursing home cannot provide that kind of care.

I own the house so there was no problem about signing the property over to Medicaid. We began the paperwork through Northwest Ohio Office On Aging. At the time I was told that if the house had been transferred to me less than two years before we applied it would be deemed to have been transferred to avoid the property going to Medicaid. Since my parents never owned the property (my brother and I bought it from their landlord) that was never a concern. My father's time in the nursing home was through Medicare so we ended up paying 20% of the 60 days before he came home. That amounted to $6,000 for the two months. The cost of the nursing home was $180,000 per year, and it was not at the high end. Also, they prescribe any medications (that was not covered by Medicare Part D so that was another $1000).

I agree that you'd be well-served to seek the advice of a lawyer, but I'd first go to the Medicaid office and see what they have to say.

We've been through this in the past two years and the laws have changed considerably from say 20 years ago.

#1 and most important -- Medicaid will not seize the home of the healthy spouse. Unfortunately, years ago they used to do that but the laws have changed.

BTW, I'm not a rocket scientist, but I completed all the paperwork myself for my grandmother and grandfather. We did not use a lawyer because frankly they did not have the money for a lawyer. Conversely, my aunt went to a lawyer and was simply instructed to do the same things that I did on my own.

The required tasks are not "legal." They are tedious. It required that I collect their financial records (bank, investments, etc.) for the last five years and complete the application.

This link, http://jfs.ohio.gov/OHP/bcps/factsheets/EstateRecovery.pdf , indicates that a home may not be taken if there is a surviving spouse, but in a section above that the word "may" is used. It should also be noted that this document was valid in January 2007. In our case we began checking into Medicaid in January 2005 before my father came home in Feb 2005.