The Role of Medicaid Planning in Funding Senior Care

When you want to protect assets for yourself or an aging loved one, there are several options. One of those options is to focus on the Medicaid planning process and how to qualify for Medicaid.

This process can involve adjusting how you or a healthy spouse, parent, or other loved one holds assets to prevent them from counting toward Medicaid eligibility. 

Continue reading for a high-level explanation of Medicaid planning; however, this is not legal advice, and we encourage you to speak to an elder law attorney about your specific situation.

Why Medicaid Planning is Key to Funding Senior Care Effectively

If you could get the state to pay for caring for your elderly parents, would you choose to? Most people would, no matter how much money they or their parents have. Why? Because the majority of aging parents want to keep their assets and pass them down to their children, who may need that support as they age, as well.

Unfortunately, senior care can quickly become a financial burden. Life expectancy is increasing, and something like a nursing home placement can mean big expenses for years. That can quickly take all the money and other assets an elderly person has, leaving nothing for them to pass down to others.

Not only is that stressful and frustrating for the elderly person, but it can also be difficult for adult children hoping to see some of the assets their parents worked so hard to build and protect throughout their lives.

Proper planning techniques can significantly improve funding for senior care by addressing the monthly income limit, asset limit, and other factors that help someone qualify for Medicaid.

By structuring assets properly, such as putting some of them in a trust and following legal guidelines, it’s possible to protect assets more securely and reduce the chances that they’ll count toward Medicaid eligibility requirements.

Consult With an Elder Law Attorney

Working with an elder law attorney can help you prepare your finances for a future Medicaid application. The goal of doing that is to ensure you’re financially qualified before you engage in Medicaid planning to give you the best opportunity for the right care.

By looking at the fair market value of your assets and reducing excess assets through trusts and other legal avenues, you can show only your remaining assets for Medicaid planning and eligibility. An irrevocable funeral trust, for example, is one of the ways to protect assets and reduce your heirs’ expenses while making it easier for you to qualify for Medicaid.

An entire segment of an elder law attorney’s work is structuring financial resources and preparing documents to ensure eligibility based on each state’s rules. By creating trusts or converting countable assets into exempt assets, family resources can be preserved.

Of course, you need to start planning early since Medicaid has a look-back period during which they check to see if you sold or gave away assets to meet the limit. Some types of estate planning are exempt from that, and others aren’t.

You don’t need to try to make these changes to your financial resources independently. The help you receive from an elder law attorney can ensure you make the right adjustments.

Medicaid Planning Strategies Vary by State

Unlike Medicare, a federal program, Medicaid is administered by each state and can vary greatly from state to state. You can work with community-based services in your state to understand the requirements of where you currently live.

If you move, though, you may need to make more changes to reduce excess income or complete asset transfers to continue to qualify for Medicaid. This can feel extremely complicated, but it doesn’t have to be. Although it’s often time-consuming, there are attorneys and other advocates who help many families get the care they need for aging loved ones.

Whether you’re helping your elderly parents make financial changes, or you want to plan for your future or that of your spouse, understanding what’s included in countable resources matters. An attorney can help you understand Medicaid rules and how to qualify under them so you’ll feel confident in protecting your assets.

The Ethics Surrounding Medicaid Planners

Ethics play an important role in the Medicaid program and what you choose to do when it comes to applying for benefits. That’s because there are some people who question the ethics of providing this service for well-to-do clients and believe Medicaid is for the poor.

This group views the children – who end up with the assets eventually – as committing a form of elder abuse. In short, they think that Medicaid benefits should only be used for people who don’t have assets. If adult children help their elderly parents qualify for Medicaid, the assumption is that greed is involved.

Another group defends Medicaid planning as a wise financial decision like estate planning to avoid taxes. They view their parents as deserving of the financial break after paying into the system for a lifetime. Any negative impact on other seniors with lower financial means is the responsibility of the government.

Both of these opinions are valid, but it’s entirely understandable that a Medicaid applicant may want to keep assets they’ve worked for and pass them along to their children. The overall Medicaid planning cost is relatively low, and the National Elder Law Foundation can help interested parties find the information and support they need.

Asset Protection for Long-Term Support

Long-term care is extremely costly, especially if you have an elderly loved one who needs ongoing support at home or in a skilled nursing facility. Working with a Medicaid planner gives you the opportunity to see how changes to your assets can benefit you.

Senior care planning techniques are vital ways to provide for loved ones, and addressing Medicaid ineligibility is part of that. Through options such as Medicaid asset protection trusts, you can keep assets you’ve worked hard for, pass them down to others, and still have Medicaid coverage.

This is also true of your elderly loved ones, who may be facing health concerns and looking for ways to avoid losing everything they’ve built over the years. Working with Medicaid planning professionals is the right choice for long-term asset protection and long-term care needs.

Personal, Safe, and Proper Care

A view that is often overlooked by both groups of people who have opinions about adjusting assets to qualify for Medicaid is the actual care itself. Care is not a commodity that’s essentially the same everywhere. It’s very personal and based on safety, capability, licensing, and reputation, with environmental and geographic aspects to consider.

Our position is that proper care is the most important aspect of the decision to be made. Everyone deserves proper care as they age, and Medicaid planning services can help you and your elderly loved ones with that planning.

By finding a care home, nursing home, or assisted living community that the entire family is satisfied with first, the financial aspects of funding the care become a second but informed step.

Find the Right Option with CarePatrol Today

Having worked with thousands of families, we have seen many situations where thousands of dollars were spent to ensure Medicaid eligibility. However, the facilities that accepted it were not acceptable to the family when it was time. Once an acceptable facility is found, a meeting with an elder law attorney to achieve the goal of funding that care can make sense.

Get in touch with CarePatrol today to get the help and information you need. We work with elder law attorneys as well as senior living communities across the nation. Planning is always a good thing, and we can make it easier for you and your loved ones to enjoy peace of mind.

Contact a CarePatrol local senior care advisor to get started.