I get asked pretty regularly, what is Elder Law? Elder Law can be a variety of things but
in our practice, Elder Law is assisting Senior Citizens with getting the government benefits that they need to help them get the long-term care they need.
The biggest part of that is getting them onto Medicaid, hopefully without spending
through all of their assets. Now this isn’t the community Medicaid that most people think of. This is the program that pays for 20 hours a week of in-home care, some assisted living facilities or nursing home care.
The qualifications for this benefit are different depending on if it is a single person or a
married couple. For a single person, they must have less than $2000 in countable assets. For a couple, there is a calculation to determine how much the spouse at home gets to keep, which is half of the total assets, with a minimum of $31,584 and a maximum of $157,920. However, with proper planning, there are ways to protect some of the person’s assets so that they don’t have to go broke getting the care that they need.
Countable assets include checking, savings, CDs, money markets, investments, cash
value of life insurance, vehicles (if more than 1), properties (if more than 1), etc., and in certain circumstances, IRAs and 401(k)s.
There are some exempt assets, which include the house, 1 vehicle, term life insurance,
burial polices, household goods and furnishings, and in certain circumstances, IRAs and 401(k)s.
For a person to qualify for Medicaid, they have to reach those asset limits and once they
do, the state begins paying for their care. Once this happens, the Medicaid recipient gets to keep a whopping $50 each month from their income and the rest of it typically goes to the facility, unless there is a spouse at home and sometimes they may get to keep part of that income.
Medicaid then begins keeping track of what they pay for someone’s care and once they
pass away, the state can come back after those exempt assets through a program called Estate Recovery. This is when the state tries to recoup some of what they spent on that person’s care.
These are very important benefits and programs. According to the US Department of
Health and Human Services, over two-thirds of people in Nursing Homes have Medicaid paying for their care. The Passport Waiver program that pays for up to 20 hours per week of in-home care helps keep Seniors in their homes instead of forcing them into a facility. The Assisted Living Waiver program allows Seniors to receive a less restrictive level of care in an assisted living facility instead of forcing them into a nursing home.
In the state of Ohio, the average cost per month for a nursing home is $7787, for an
assisted living facility it is $5294 and for 24/7 in-home care it is about $17,000. The averages for nursing homes and assisted living facilities is actually lower than what we typically see in the West Central part of Ohio. We are typically seeing between $10,000 to $12,000 per month for a nursing home and about $5500 to $8000 per month for an assisted living facility.
If you or a loved one is facing a long-term care situation, please reach out to Durnell
Maier Law to determine what steps are necessary to assist with protecting a portion of your assets, but still getting the care and benefits that you need.
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