Medicaid Planning
Nobody expects to run out of money during their lifetime. However, those families confronted with a long term care need are often faced with the financial devastation that comes with the high cost of care.
The term "Medicaid Planning" includes a wide variety of services that are provided by legal and financial professionals. Generally, Medicaid Planning is any assistance provided to a potential Medicaid Applicant prior to and in anticipation of their Medicaid application. This planning can be as simple as collecting and preparing documents or more complicated, such as a complete restructuring of a person's financial affairs.
In New Jersey, Medicaid covers nursing home care, assisted living facility care, and limited homecare. A high percentage of Americans will find themselves in a nursing home at some point in their lives. Given that nursing home care in New Jersey averages between $9000 and $14,000 a month, and that Medicare will not pay for nursing home care, it is hardly surprising that many families exhaust their savings within one year of moving into a nursing home.
A great deal of the complexity associated with Medicaid Planning happens when someone's monthly income or their financial resources are near, or exceed, the financial eligibility limits. Qualified Income Trusts can be used when income exceeds the allowable limit and resources in excess of allowable limits can be converted into non-countable assets. However, these transactions usually require legal or financial expertise.
Why Engage in Medicaid Planning?
Families usually engage in Medicaid Planning to ensure the best possibility of obtaining Medicaid for their family member. However, motivations behind this simple answer can include the following:
Long term care is very expensive and families want to be certain their family member receives the care they need, which otherwise they could not afford.
Obtaining Medicaid eligibility can be extremely complicated and simple errors can cause a denial of Medicaid benefits.
The Medicaid application and review process can be time-consuming and working with a professional can shorten this process and save money.
Ensuring that the healthy spouse, who lives at home, can have financial resources so that he or she can continue to live at home.
To preserve the family assets so the next generation can keep a family home or maintain family assets.
For all of these reasons, we help to legally and ethically protect our client’s assets to get them qualified for Medicaid and supplement their lifestyle with their own assets.