Medicaid: Second Opinions Required
A potential client recently contacted my office. Her husband was recently admitted to a long term care facility (nursing home) and after Medicare stopped paying for her husband's care, she faced a bill of approximately $9,000 per month. While the "spend down" advice the nursing facility provided the wife was not incorrect, it was also not designed to benefit her because it neglected to explore opportunities for savings for her and her husband.
Medicaid rules are plentiful and complex. What that means to our clients is that each person's case must be separately considered based on their particular circumstance.
The advice that many nursing homes provide is often simplistic, and is designed to allow the nursing home to be paid by you as long as possible. Often rights to preserve assets are not explained. Too often, I have had clients come to see me after following advice from others that leads to the loss of tens of thousands of dollars.
Before exhausting funds, please contact us for a second opinion. We often can implement strategies that save tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, just by providing correct and tailored advice.
For instance, did you know there is a trust that can be used to hold assets that allow funds to be used to buy items and services for the nursing home resident AFTER they are Medicaid eligible?
Did you know there are circumstances under which Medicaid allows a parent to gift a house to a child without penalty?
Did you know that most retirement funds and IRA's can be protected and not counted as an asset by Medicaid?
We look at all of your assets and will review the possible planning avenues that you can take that works best for you and your family, and put our 30 years of Medicaid planning and advice to work for you. Please don't hesitate to call us or schedule an appointment.