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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?
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.
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…
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…
A very common situation for my clients (or potential clients) find themselves in is the chaotic situation of transferring their parent from a hospital to an area nursing home for rehabilitation. It is in this situation, when emotions are high, people are tired, that the nursing home will, at the last second, wants the son or daughter…
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…
Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment Figures for 2012 The new minimum community spouse resource allowance (CSRA) is $22,728, and the new maximum CSRA is $113,640. The new maximum monthly maintenance needs allowance is $2,841. The minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance remains $1,838.75. This has yet to be implemented for Maryland. It is expected to come out shortly. It is unclear…
According to the newly published survey by Metlife, the average cost of long term care continues to rise. According to the report the average room nursing home rates rose nationwide by 4.4 percent to $87,235 a year or $239 a day, while assisted living facility costs jumped 5.6 percent on average to $41,724 a year…
For Medical Assistance (i.e. Medicaid) eligibility, Maryland will examine the amount of assets held by the applicant and by the applicant’s spouse (if any). The most the applicant may have at the time of filing is $2,500 and the most a spouse may have (currently) is $109,560. The bigger question is what is a countable…