Interesting Facts About Long Term Care In Florida Florida nursing homes are serving increasingly diverse patient base and providing a greater variety of acute care, rehabilitative and convalescent services that cannot be delivered elsewhere. Key Facts There are 683 licensed nursing homes in Florida, representing approximately 83,587 beds (Souce: Agency for Health Care Administration) The estimated…
You may be afraid of losing your house to the nursing home, the State, or otherwise, if you must enter a nursing home and apply for Medicaid benefits to pay for the nursing home. While this fear may be well-founded in the vast majority of states, transferring the home to your children is usually not…
Often our clients seeking Medicaid benefits to help pay for nursing home care, or other long term care, are concerned about financial protections available to the stay at home spouse. They want to know how many assets or how much income the healthy spouse will be allowed to keep to ensure the financial well-being of…
Americans spent nearly $163 billion for long-term care in skilled nursing facilities and continuing care retirement communities (CCRC) in 2016, according to a recent U.S. Government report. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ National Health Care Spending report for 2016, published December 27, 2017, in Health Affairs, found that total healthcare spending in the…
Have you or a loved one been denied Medicare-covered services because you’re “not improving” or “not making progress”? Many health care providers are still not aware that Medicare is required to cover skilled nursing and home care even if a patient is not showing improvement. If you are denied coverage based on this outdated standard,…
Immediate annuities can be a useful tool to protect the spouse of a nursing home resident who applies for Medicaid. These types of annuities allow the nursing home resident to spend down assets and give the spouse a guaranteed income. Immediate annuities are an available planning tool in the State of Florida. Medicaid is the…
New Medicare rules designed to give nursing home residents more control of their care are being phased into effect. The rules give nursing home residents more options regarding meals and visitation as well as make changes to discharge and grievance procedures. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid finalized the rules — the first comprehensive update to…
A recent report from the Alzheimer’s Association states that one in nine Americans age 65 or older currently has Alzheimer’s. With the baby boomer generation aging and people living longer, that number is expected to nearly triple by 2050. Alzheimer’s, of course, is just one cause of dementia—mini-strokes (TIAs) are also to blame—so the number of…
A new Medicare rule will promote earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Medicare will now reimburse primary care doctors who conduct an Alzheimer’s evaluation and offer information about care planning to elderly patients with cognitive impairment. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 5 million Americans have the disease. In addition, more than 85 percent of…
Nursing home discrimination against Medicaid residents is illegal. While it is illegal for a nursing home to discriminate against a Medicaid recipient, it still happens. To prevent such discrimination, nursing home residents and their families need to know their rights and how to fight nursing home discrimination against Medicaid beneficiaries. The potential for discrimination arises…
