Medicaid Qualification

Susan is a widow whose husband, Charles, passed 15 years ago. She has a modest nest egg of around $150,000 and a home that is paid for. Susan lives by herself, but she has developed dementia and recently her symptoms have grown exponentially worse.

Susan’s daughter, Betsey, knows her mother now needs the around the clock care, and Betsey cannot provide it. She has learned that a nursing home will cost $7,000 per month, and she does not want to see everything her parents worked for lost in less than 2 years, with nothing left to care for her mother. Betsey was lost, getting “advice” from all sorts of well-meaning people including the Medicaid office and the nursing home. They both told her to sell her mother’s house and spend all the money on her mother’s care, and once she was down to $4,000 she could qualify for Medicaid. Betsey saw how this benefited Medicaid and the nursing home, but Betsey wanted to get advice from someone who was looking after her mother’s interest.

Fortunately, one of her friends told her about the Morton Law Firm. After an hour meeting with a Certified Elder Law Attorney, Betsey learned of all sorts of other things the law allowed her to do with her mother’s money besides just giving it to the nursing home, and how her mother could qualify for Medicaid much faster than the “spend everything” plan Medicaid was advising. Once her mother qualified, Betsey would still have money in the bank to provide extra care for her mother, like a private room, cable TV, and sitters when she needed them. Betsey followed the plan recommended by the firm and was able to get her mother qualified for Medicaid in about 6 months with over $100,000 set aside to provide extra care and comfort for her mother. When Susan died about a year later, Betsey inherited her Mother’s house and about $70,000. If Betsey had not sought guidance from someone that knew the rules and was looking after her mother’s interest, she would probably have followed the “sell the house and spend everything” plan others were insisting on. But it was obvious who benefited most from their plan. After all, who do they work for?

Her mother would have eventually been broke and in a nursing home, with no money to pay for extra things to make her stay a little more bearable, and there would have been nothing for Betsey to inherit. Fortunately, she found someone else to help guide her through this process – someone that knew the Medicaid rules, and that worked for her family. Armed with this advice she was able to save much of her mother’s estate and provide better care and comfort to her mother during her final months. If this is the type of advice that you might benefit from, click on the link below, schedule a call, and let’s talk.