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The Medicaid (i.e., Medical Assistance) process is very complex. At its core is the issue of making sure certain asset levels are in place. In order to be eligible for Medicaid, the applicant must have no more than $2,500 in countable assets. But, often the issue is, when do you need to have $2,500 in countable assets?
Applying for Medicaid can be like walking into a minefield. There are a number of ways that a Medicaid application can go wrong—and the consequences can be absolutely devastating.
Maryland Medicaid is called “Medical Assistance.” Medicaid is the name of the federal program that helps people with medical costs. In Maryland, the program is called Medical Assistance. In the context of elder law, Medical Assistance is the program that covers skilled nursing care.
When your family member is in a nursing home, it’s important to protect their assets, especially these two: house and life insurance.
Transferring Medicaid Costs From the Federal Government to the State There is constant pressure from the Federal government to cut Medicaid costs. One drastic solution is to push Medicaid costs from the Federal government to the State. Instead of being treated as an entitlement program (i.e. if you are eligible then you will be covered),…
Medicaid Cost Cutting One of the various changes proposed by candidate Trump was the idea of shifting Medicaid responsibility from the Federal Government to the States. The rational proposed by Trump was that such a move would “maximize flexibility to states via block grants so that local leaders can design innovative Medicaid programs that will…
Medicaid Medical Assistance Rules About Countable Assets Medicaid Medical Assistance rules clearly indicate that: Income is converted at the beginning of the next month to a countable asset. Applicants can have no more than $2,500 in countable assets. Applicants whose incomes are deposited at the beginning or middle of the month usually have no issues with…
Filing for Medicaid Filing for Medicaid (called Medical Assistance in Maryland) is a very paper intensive process. Often times it is the children of the parent who ends up trying to gather the mountain of information needed for the application process. Given the five year look back requirement, the burden is often high on that family…
We just won another Medical Assistance appeal issue. In this case, Medical Assistance was initially denied for nursing home benefits and the son of the Medical Assistance applicant was handed an invoice from the nursing home for over $100,000. Needless to say, he was upset. We were able to successfully argue that that the transactions…
The issue of whether or not an IRA asset is a countable asset is an interesting issue from a Maryland Medical Assistance perspective. For individuals and their spouses, when an ill spouse goes into a nursing home and reviews the issue of applying for Medical Assistance for the ill spouse, the issue that routinely comes…