ELDER LAW EVANSVILLE
Medicaid Planning
Medicaid is a state/federal program that pays most nursing home costs for people who meet three eligibility requirements: aged or disabled need, medical need, and financial need. In Indiana, eligibility for Medicaid is determined by the Department of Human Services.
Medicaid rules are extremely complex, confusing, and virtually impossible to understand without experienced legal assistance.
The United States Supreme Court has referred to the Medicaid laws as “an aggravated assault on the English language, resistant to attempts to understand it.” Schweiker v. Gray Panthers, 453 U.S. 34 (1981) . One United States Appeals Court has called the Medicaid Act one of the “most completely impenetrable texts within human experience” and “dense reading of the most tortuous kind.” Rehab Association of Virginia v. Kozlowski, 42 F. 3d 1444, 1450 (4th Cir. 1994)
Those statements were made over 20 years ago! Since that time, Medicaid laws have undergone a number of changes, and none of them have made things simpler!
Without proper planning and legal advice from an experienced elder law attorney, most people spend much more than they should on long term care. This unnecessary expense jeopardizes their future care and well-being, as well as the security of their family.
For Disabled Children
Asset protection strategies allow an individual to protect a home and an unlimited amount of assets for the benefit of a disabled adult child or other family member. Planning ahead will help preserve assets should placement in a skilled nursing facility become necessary. However, even when advance planning has not been done, Gary can still help preserve assets and avoid costly mistakes.
For Individuals
For a single or widowed person, the most important reason to engage in asset protection planning is to experience the highest quality of life possible in the event you are forced into a nursing home. For instance, money that we protect for a client in the process of getting him or her qualified for Medicaid can be used, once they are receiving Medicaid benefits, to provide them with an enhanced level of care and a better quality of life while they are in a nursing home. For instance, we will often encourage the families of our clients to use protected assets to hire a caregiver or helper to keep the family member company, or use it to purchase services or items that Medicaid doesn’t cover, such as dental work, vision aids, hearing aids, personal clothing and toiletries, etc.
For Couples
With proper planning, couples can obtain Medicaid assistance without having to deplete their life savings. With proper planning, a spouse who is able to stay at home, can keep all of the couple’s assets – and much or all income – while Medicaid pays for the nursing home. Typically, the most important goal is to ensure that the spouse remaining at home is able to live the remaining years of his or her life with the utmost dignity and without suffering a standard of living reduction.
Medicaid Applications
Gary Price is knowledgeable and experienced in filing and gaining approval of all types of Medicaid applications. Gary will attend the interview, maintain excellent working relationships with case workers, perform all follow-up work, and keep abreast of agency and statutory modifications and rule-making.
