Senior care can be quite expensive, especially if you are moving a loved one into a nursing home. The average cost of one year in a nursing home for an American is $90,000. Regardless of your income or financial status, that’s a lot of money.
In fact, it’s so much that it’s far too expensive for most people. Luckily, a lot of people are not paying for their care out of pocket. Medicaid and private insurance can often pay for a good deal of senior care costs.
But Medicaid has income requirements associated with it. The person receiving these benefits must be a resident of the state that they are getting care in, to start with, but there’s also financial requirements. If someone has too much expendable money at their disposal, they will not qualify for Medicaid services. It’s important to know what those requirements are and how they impact those that you love.
The bottom line: if you or a loved one are going to be selling off assets to help yourself qualify for Medicaid, be sure to work with an attorney and start the process early. There are a lot of loopholes that need to be taken into consideration when finances and senior care are mixed together. For example, giving away money or property can be considered a gift and there may be a waiting period after it has happened before it no longer counts as your money. Again, working with an attorney that specializes in these kinds of things will help you to better navigate the waters of senior care finances.
Whether you’re paying for it yourself, have an insurance policy that covers some of the cost, or your insurance pays for all of the cost of care, someone is paying for care. The best way to proceed will be different from person to person, but knowing your needs will help you to better guide your decisions.
Regardless of what you’re up against, you have resources on your side. Using your resources well will benefit you. Even if you are an expert in some parts of senior care, you likely don’t have expertise in all areas of care. We are care professionals here at Paradise In-Home Care, but we can’t do it all on our own. We rely on other experts in areas that we don’t have the same experience and specialties within. A team approach to care works because it helps to ensure that all of your bases are covered and that different points of view are taken into account.
An attorney can be a great addition to any team. So can a care professional. We’d love to help out. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions about senior care–in any area. We might not know the answer, but we can certainly help get you pointed in the right direction. One of our professionals would be honored to walk you through the process during a free consultation session. All you need to do is give us a call to get started.
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