Long Island Elder Law & Estate Planning

Working with Medicaid planning attorneys to make a Medicaid plan is one of the most important ways to protect assets as you get older.  There are many reasons why you should put a Medicaid plan in place, and many reasons why you should not wait to take action to make effective use of legal tools to ensure you can qualified for Medicaid when you need coverage. medicaid planning attorneys

Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC can help you to determine if making a Medicaid plan is something that you should be concerned with doing. If making a plan is right for you, we can can work closely with you to take the necessary steps to put a comprehensive plan in place.

Give us a call to find out from Medicaid planning attorneys about the assistance we can offer. You can also read on to learn about some of the key reasons why you should not wait to put a Medicaid plan in place.

You Never Know When You Will Need Nursing Home Care

According to the Wall Street Journal, more than 70 percent of people over 65 require nursing home care sometime during their life. However, even younger people could end up requiring care if they suffer an incapacitating injury or illness such as a stroke. If you don’t already have a Medicaid plan in place when you end up needing care, you could find yourself with no options but to pay out of pocket and impoverish yourself.

Medicaid Has a Five-Year Look Back Rule that Can Make It More Difficult to Make a Plan if You Delay

Medicaid is means-tested because it is intended to provide coverage for nursing home care only for people who do not have the financial resources to pay for care. To try to prevent people from just giving away their wealth when care becomes necessary, Medicaid has a five year lookback rule.  Under the five year lookback rule, Medicaid reviews five years worth of transactions from the time when you apply for benefits. If you have made a transfer of assets during that time period, you could face temporary disqualification from getting Medicaid coverage.

You could find yourself in a situation where you have to pay out of pocket for months or even years of nursing home care because of the five year lookback rule. The five year lookback rule works by dividing the total value of transferred wealth by the average cost of a nursing home in your area.

If you transferred $20,000 in wealth and it costs $5,000 to live in a nursing home where you live, you’d divide $20,000 by $5,000. The result of this math is equal to the number of months of disqualification. In this example, therefore, you would not get Medicaid coverage for four-months and would have to pay for your nursing home care during this time.

You don’t want the five year lookback rule to affect the type of Medicaid plan you make if you can avoid this, so you should make your plans early.

It Takes Time to Make a Medicaid Plan That Protects Your Wealth

You don’t want to be scrambling to make a Medicaid plan when you have been diagnosed with a serious ailment or when you are getting older and the risk that you will need nursing home care is rising.  Making a Medicaid plan often involves taking steps like creating a trust and transferring assets into that trust. It can take time to do this, so you should work with an experienced attorney well before you expect to need Medicaid to get your plans in place in advance and to get legal tools working for you to protect your assets.

Getting Help from Medicaid Planning Attorneys

Medicaid planning attorneys at Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC  will work with you to evaluate your situation and your possible sources of coverage for nursing home care. We can help you to determine if you should make a Medicaid plan and can work closely with you to put your plans in place.

To find out more about how our firm can assist you with the Medicaid planning process, join us for a free seminar. If you are ready to start the process of creating a personalized Medicaid plan to keep your wealth safe and secure so you can protect your legacy, give us a call at (631) 265-0599 or contact us online today.

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About Mark S. Eghrari, Estate Planning Attorney

Mark S. Eghrari is an attorney in private practice in Smithtown, New York. He has been in practice since 1988. Mark S. Eghrari provides extensive estate and tax planning services to individuals and businesses. Mr. Eghrari’s primary focus is helping clients avoid probate, minimize or eliminate Federal and State Estate taxes and protect their assets from the high cost of nursing care, if they become ill.