According to a study conducted by Caring.com, the percentage of people aged fifty-five and older who have created a will has fallen from 60 percent to 44 percent since 2019.[1] Although creating or updating your estate planning may seem like a daunting task, a proper estate plan can help address the concerns you may face…
Medicare and Medicaid are two different government programs for healthcare. It is important to understand the difference between them. Here, we will discuss how the program benefits differ, how eligibility for each program is established, and discuss some recent news pertaining to each program. Medicare vs. Medicaid – What are the program benefits? Medicare is…
We often are asked if a parent sells assets to have funds to pay for a nursing home, or assisted living facility, will there be a penalty or waiting period before the parent can qualify for Medicaid benefits. The simple answer to that question is no. There is no transfer penalty or waiting period when…
Is Medicaid planning complex? Sometimes, Medicaid planning can be easy. An example might be when there is a need for a Qualified Income Trust, for a nursing home resident who has spent down their assets to practically zero, and whose income is above the Medicaid limit of $2,313 for 2019. You just fill out the…
Frequently, we are asked whether the client can engage in Medicaid planning and the preparation of a qualified income trust, or Miller Trust, on their own. The short answer is that “yes” a person can do their own Medicaid planning and prepare their own qualified income trust. What you “can” do and what you “should”…
Spousal impoverishment for the community spouse who stays at home when the other spouse is in a skilled nursing home is always an important issue. Members of the U.S. House house of representatives have taken a step toward extending some of the financial protections provided to seniors receiving long-term care in home or community settings.…
The following message was released on November 30, 2018, by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, announced actions that will bolster nursing home oversight and improve transparency in order to ensure that facilities are staffed adequately to provide high-quality long term care. These…
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…
