When a nursing home becomes a requirement for you or a loved one, people are faced with tough decisions as well as how can they afford the extreme costs of the nursing home. The average cost is between $6,844-$7,698 per month. A total of $82,128-$92,376 per year for an indefinite period.
Though one could navigate the paperwork in order to file for Medicaid, hiring an elder law attorney can save their clients tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, as elder law attorneys specialize in Medicaid rules and the issues surrounding them, including how to plan for long-term care – how to best structure your loved one’s estate to ensure the best care for the best price.
Not only do elder care attorneys help with Medicaid, but they can assist with the complicated milieu of issues related to elder care such as:
- Medicaid Applications
- Medicare Enrollment
- Proxies, Guardianships, and Financial Powers of Attorney
- Durable Powers of Attorney
- Healthcare Surrogates and Medical Powers of Attorney
- Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts
- Long-term Care Planning
- Miller Trusts
Elder law is a subspecialty of estate planning. Elder law attorneys help plan for retiree benefits, healthcare and long-term care, Medicaid and Medicare coverage, and home care and nursing home care. We help with decision-making documents and provide guidance on other legal issues for seniors.
There is no right age in for someone to start planning. However, by age 60 you should start the planning process. The longer you wait, the higher the risk of your money not being protected, or you may lose your capacity because of health issues. We recommend that people do multigenerational planning by helping their kids start estate plans, for example, when they are in their 30s with young children.
If the child is receiving government benefits, we might want to set up a special needs trust so they will not lose the benefits, but the money will be available for them. It is also important to consider who might be the appropriate trustee for the child with disabilities in the future.
The new U.S. estate tax exemption now is $11.18 million per person, and a couple is entitled to a $22.36 million exemption. That is a significant amount of money a person may leave without paying estate taxes on the federal side. There are a handful of states that still have state estate taxes, so you do have to pay attention to that, especially if you move from one state to another. But overall, most people do not need to file an estate tax return.
There is a myriad of options available. Each state is going to be specific, but you can give your assets away. You can put them in an irrevocable trust. You can buy long-term care insurance, or you can take your chances and do nothing. There are waiting periods that must be met in order to protect the assets. A will helps direct who is going to oversee distributing your assets as you stipulate. You also might want to have a separate memorandum in addition to the will that designates more sentimental property like the old clock on the mantel.
A Health Care Directive, an Advance Directive, and a Living Will are the same thing, a document where you state your health care wishes if you are at end of life. The term “Living Will” is confusing as it bears no relationship to a Last Will and Testament. To avoid confusion, we will only use the term “Advance Directive.”
An Advance Directive refers to a legal document in which you specify in writing your wishes regarding your health care should you be at end of life or in a permanent vegetative condition and unable to communicate your wishes. It is critical that you make your health care wishes known through your Health Care Directive.
The Advance Directive is an important document that works with your Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Decisions to empower your Attorney-in-Fact to confidently carry out your wishes.
No. A power of attorney simply allows a designated person whom you trust to exercise the rights that are provided in the power of attorney document. While powers of attorney often cover a broad range of matters, you can craft a power of attorney as narrowly as you choose. The power of attorney does not provide that an elderly person surrenders these rights. The only “right” that you are relinquishing is the right to retain sole control over the area governed by the power of attorney.
Very simply stated, Medicaid is a government-funded health care program for individuals who meet income or resource qualifications. Medicaid provides benefits to pay for Long-Term Care costs. Many planning techniques exist to preserve assets and achieve current or future Medicaid Long-Term Care benefits eligibility.
Medicaid benefits can be divided into two broad categories: acute care (medical) and Long-Term Care. Eligibility for each kind of benefit is different, though they are similar. The Medicaid program pays for all prescription drugs. Medicaid beneficiaries may receive their drugs through Medicare’s Part D program, but the premiums and co-payments are paid by Medicaid.
A single person’s income must be less than the private pay rate in the nursing home plus the applicant’s regularly recurring monthly medical expenses. For one spouse of a married couple to receive Medicaid benefits, the income of that spouse must be less than the private pay rate in the nursing home plus the applicant’s regularly recurring monthly medical expenses.