I have a meeting with my ElderCare Lawyer tomorrow to start the approval process for my DW. We had already done all of our estate planning with his firm last year.
I live in NY, and there is a care management service called VNS Choice and they have offered to do the process of Medicaid approval for my DW. It is free, but I don't know if I feel comfortable without going through my attorney.
I know there is a lot of law(confusing law) and it changes each year and all states are different. But I could use a break on having to pay for yet one more thing as all the in home care I am using is all out of pocket.
I am not familiar with the VNS Choice in NY, but I would check very carefully. We have plenty of agencies here in Florida that will do the Medicaid approval process for you, but they are not free. Find out if it is just the initial consultation that is free.
Also, no matter which service you use, YOU still have pages and pages of documents that YOU have to find, gather, and organize for them.
Considering your concerns about the changing laws, I would recommend sticking with the lawyer. No matter what, YOU are still stuck with gathering all of the paperwork.
Hi G, I went through our states government agency. It was also free. It was very easy and didn't take long at all. Of course, all I have is the house and that has a mortgage, so there were no "assets" to try and save. They talked with me on the phone first and then sent a detailed list of things I needed to bring to the meeting. Being run by the State, they know the laws like the back of their hand. I was very comfortable going to them. Now if I had pensions or retirement plans, things of that nature, then I would have gone to a lawyer. Best of luck!!
I also applied through the state and didn't have anything to worry about protecting. The process was relatively simple and he was approved quickly. I was told it could take 3 to 5 days but I got same day approval. He was admitted to nursing home 1 day, approved for Medicaid the next.
Thanks for the responses. Joan, yes I am going to go with my ElderCare Lawyer, I just needed to hear someone else say.. do that!! Thanks!
I did speak with a rep from VNS Choice. Not too well versed in Medicaid law, but said they could do it faster than a Lawyer. I'd rather it done right and slow, rather than fast and not right.
I have an appointment today.
Nikki, We don't have much more than that, but I have a 401k, life insurance, pension etc... and my dw also has 401k, an IRA and Life Insurance. These are all considered assets, i.e. money to pay for care.
I also know that my DW had pensions with several places, since she doesn't remember is there a way for me to look up what pensions she may have available and would being on disability qualify you to receive pension benefits? I have called a few places and they have told me to contact her former employers. Once is no longer in business and the other is has changed hands. Both were hospitals.
After finding out that the elder law attorney wanted $6,000.00 for the Medicaid, I chose to let the nursing home do it for nothing. It may have taken longer but I wasn't paying anything while waiting. Of course, all Jean had was his Social Security and a small V. A. disability pension. No 401 K, annuities or any of that stuff. Jean's $5,0000 V.A. life insurance has no cash value either.
•An Employee Benefits Security Administration adviser at 866-444-3272 can help with problems with a pension or 401(k). Find a list of abandoned 401(k)s at http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/.
•Look for a private pension that's been terminated on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp.'s website at pbgc.gov or call 800-400-7242.
•For more resources, check the PBGC site for the helpful handbook, Finding a Lost Pension. Good luck!
As to the elder care attorneys, I find they are not inexpensive. I paid 3900.00 for the first meeting and the opinion letter which was many pages long. It covered many areas and fully explained Medical and VA Aid and Assistance programs..and of course we make too much to qualify so to protect our assets seeing a family law attorney was suggested ( read consider divorce). I have not done that. I called the office and askes a couple of other questions as to how to protect our ( actually my assets) sans divorce and have an appt next week. I have several reasons, after reading the thread Joan posted that was started a couple of years ago on this very topic..I suggest anyone in this position read it carefully..laws do change from state to state.. Anyway, with two girls living overseas, the mother of the girls seemingly developing this same or similar disease, the daughter left in the states may well have her hands full with her mom' s issues. Couple that with dh's family ( siblings and perhaps nieces and nephews too) getting into the act, once there is divorce there is no guarantee that they would not muscle in and try to get him to their area and into a facility there and what legal standing would I have after more than 33 years? I have been the one dealing with everything life has tossed my way with inherited kids, supporting them in some instances ( clothes, gifts for birthdays and the grandkids etc) and as we all know step parents have little legal standing getting reimbursement ( a situation..in the 1980s our middle girl was applying for a grant..both my income and her dad's were demanded to be evaluated and sure as God made green apples she was disqualified because my income put us over the top)... So wish me luck next week that I come back with some good solutions. It will cost extra for our trust update and I know this going in but as said earlier get it right. And check out the lawyers with your state bar..one we had was stated within a firm to be the lawyer for this firm and he was but within that time was disbarred and he never revealed that and there are things now that need cleaning up.
I had a consult with my Lawyer, he referred me to an eldercare advocate. She is very good, but she is going to charge 5000.00. VNS choice is going to go through the approval process with me at no cost.
Joan, yes there are lots and lots of documents. I am in the process of gathering.
The key here seems to be getting into a pooled income trust. For those of you in New York, here's a link to a step by step process.
http://wnylc.com/health/entry/44/
I really cannot afford the 5000.00, so I am hoping that VNS choice will help me get through this. Getting the trust set up seems to be the most complicated. A good friend of our family who is a hospice nurse suggested VNS Choice. She said they are a great service and they will guide me through this whole process. She didn't think I should be paying for this.
I had a certified elder attorney take care of all the legal matters for us. It was $5,000. They set up 3 different trusts and told us just how to do an annunity my DH has so that it will not be counted as income. They told us how much we need to spend down to reduce our remaining assets in order to qualify for VA or medical. They were really fast and seemed to know what they were doing. We are going on a cruise in Oct. and plan on another major trip after the first of the year to spend down our assets. We were really pleased with them and felt spending the $5,000 was well worth the money to protect most of our assets and be qualified within a short time frame if and when it is necessary.
We felt that we couldn't take our funds with us (after death) and if we had to spend some of it on our care....so be it...but, the majority is in trust and won't count.