When do you need nursing home and Medicaid planning

Attorney Robert Hidock: People would be calling me about protecting their assets if they had a loved one that was getting ready to go into a skilled nursing facility, or if they're trying to figure out a way to get some free home healthcare for their parents, they would call me and I can direct them and have the proper Medicaid compliant tools to help them acquire their goals to protect their assets.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Who would be your typical client, Robert?

Robert: Usually my typical client is an elderly person usually in their 80s. They typically have had a medical event like a fall or a broken hip. They find themselves in rehab. They've stopped rehabbing and they're faced with having to private pay at a skilled nursing facility. It's not safe for them to return home. If they have to private pay, it's going about $10,000 to $12,000 a month now.

Tom: They come to you and maybe they've got a few $100,000 in the bank and IRAs, retirement accounts, the home that they live in and you're there to protect that so that it's not taken by Medicaid or by nursing homes.

Robert: Correct. Let's say a typical client has a home, an IRA and they have let's say $200,000 in savings. With the home, we know it's not a countable asset for Medicaid. Medicaid or DCF is not going to force the sale of the home. However we make sure that the home does have a lady bird deed on it because if the house goes into probate, Medicaid can recover from the estate.

We know the IRA or 401k is not a countable asset. We just guide them how to protect that and also, we guide them how to protect the required minimum distribution from it.

Then we know the $200,000 is well, well over Medicaid's accountable asset limit for a single person, which is only $2,000. In that respect Tom, we know that Medicaid has a five-year lookback period. The person who's going into the nursing home can't give their son or daughter $200,000 but we can create a personal services contract where mom is giving them the 200,000 but in exchange, they we’re getting care. It's a caregiver's contract that actually goes in with the Medicaid application and bypasses Medicaid's five-year lookback period and it tries to replicate their own estate plan.

Tom: Robert, for all the listeners out there, they might be going, “Hey, what about us? We've got $500,000 in the bank, and we've got a vacation condo at the beach. and we've got annuities, and we've got this, and we got a home in North Carolina, we got so much more than that.” We just want them to know that no matter what the asset is, more than likely Olsen Law Group, we're going to be able to protect it from the cost of a nursing home and Medicaid.

Robert: I have not come across an asset that we haven't been able to protect in one shape or another. A lot of people think, “Oh, I have to be poorer to be on Medicaid. I have to be at a poverty level.” Well, yes and no. If you have like say $400,000 and you're in skilled nursing at $12,000 a month, that $400,000 could get eaten up pretty quick. If it goes and rest of your family's not going to contribute to that pot, you're going on Medicaid anyway.

It's always our goal is to protect all of those assets and get the person on Medicaid. They've paid for it. They've paid for it through their taxes, through federal income tax in Florida State tax. They deserve to have the entitlement to protect their assets and distribute to their family.

Tom: Robert, what we want the listeners to know is that as they're out there in the community talking to their neighbors and friends and family and coworkers and they hear these words, “Oh, mom is going into a nursing home, $10,000 to $12,000 a month. Everything she's ever worked for going to be down the drain in no time. At that rate, well, nothing we can do.” What we want them to know is that the Olsen Law Group, we can protect all those assets from the cost of a nursing home. There is absolutely something they can do.

People go, “Tom, we know there's a five-year lookback period for Medicaid.” We have all the Medicaid compliant tools we need to work around that. When you yourself or your parents or your family or friends, family, coworkers, you hear those words going in a nursing home, all their money's going to go up and smoke, let them know the Olsen Law Group can help them protect those assets. We're happy to do that. You can call us anytime at 407-423-5561.

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