If you are going to qualify for Medicare, you may wonder why nursing home asset protection should be on your radar. Perhaps it is natural to assume that Medicare will take care of all of your health care needs during your senior years, but in fact, Medicare does not pay for long-term care.
Help with your activities of daily living is considered to be custodial care. Medicare will pay for up to 100 days of convalescent care after surgery, but it will not pay for living assistance.
Long-term care is very expensive, and most people will eventually need it, so this is a big issue within the elder law community. When you implement nursing home asset protection strategies, you endeavor to keep resources in your family in light of the potential impact of long-term care expenses.
Medicaid Planning
For most, a nursing home asset protection plan will revolve around Medicaid eligibility. Though Medicare will not pay for living assistance, Medicaid will pick up the tab if you can qualify.
Most people are aware of the fact that Medicaid is intended for low income people with very limited resources. In spite of this, the program pays for most of the nursing home care that is received by seniors in our country.
To become eligible, you must remove countable assets from your own name before you apply. Advance action is required, because there is a five-year look-back. The gift giving must be completed at least five years before you submit your application if you want to become eligible right away.
Married people with somewhat limited resources may not have to be as concerned about the five-year look-back. If you apply for Medicaid to pay for long-term care while your spouse is still capable of living at home, your spouse may retain ownership of half of the shared countable assets up to a limit that stands at $119,220 in 2015.
There is also a minimum Community Spouse Resource Allowance of $74,820 in the state of New York. Your spouse would be able to keep this amount at minimum, even if it represented more than half of the shared assets. Plus, if you own a home, the healthy spouse could retain ownership of the home with no equity limit.
Learn More About Nursing Home Asset Protection
If you take all the right steps in advance, you can potentially get the nursing home care that you need without losing a great deal in the process. You should certainly understand everything that you can about the Medicaid program, and we can help you do just that.
Our firm has prepared an in-depth report on the subject, and it is being offered to our readers on a complimentary basis right now. To get your copy of the free report, visit this page and follow the simple instructions: Long Island Nursing Home Asset Protection.
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