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A good portion of our clients engaged in virtually no planning (before they came to our office) when faced with a parent or loved one entering a nursing home. Even in this late stage of the game, there are plenty of opportunities to protect a parent’s or loved ones’ assets from nursing home related costs. …
Medicaid Asset Protection from Nursing Home Expenses One of the most often used techniques to protect assets for a single individual is the use of the “controlled gifting” technique. With this technique the higher the fixed income and lower the nursing home costs the greater the savings. This technique involves controlled gifting and most likely the use of…
What is cited below is another jurisdictional case which illustrates the limits of what a State may do to accomplish a Medical Assistance (i.e. Medicaid) recovery on community spouses’ assets. In this case, an attempt was made to put a Medicaid lien on the estate of a recently deceased community spouse at a time when the…
FIA Transmittal 11-26 The Department of Human Resources just released an update changing the document requirements for a Medical Assistance application. The changes for what is required in the initial application is a profound change in terms of the financial statement documentation that is initially needed. Instead of a full five years worth of documentation, what would be needed…
A Power of Attorney Holder’s Breach of Fiduciary Duty There is no question that a financial power of attorney holds what is called a “fiduciary duty” to act in the best interests of the grantor. But what if that power of attorney holder breaches that duty and takes “mom’s” funds for herself? What if her…
Normally, for every $6,800 transferred out of a Medical Assistant’s name or their spouse, it will result in a penalty of one month of ineligibility. However, a frequent question is what happens if my parent transferred funds when they were healthy but during the five year look back period? Maryland case law on this is…
Metlife recently released their study confirming that nursing and assisted living rates increased nationwide between 2009 and 2010. For Maryland, in the Baltimore region nursing home costs for semi-private rooms ranged from $6,200/month to $8,742/month. Nursing home costs for private rooms ranged from $6,510/month to $11,005/month. Statewide, assisted living costs in 2010 ranged from $2,800/month…
Use of Medicaid Recipient’s Income to Pay Existing Nursing Home Expenses The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released a critical Medical Assistance eligibility update (MR 154). The changes in this update are profound. It now allows a nursing home Medical Assistance recipient to use her income to pay for nursing home related expenses (up…
Transferred to Pooled Trust Can Be Used to Save Assets For the past number of years there have been questions as to whether Medicaid transfer-of-assets penalties would apply to transfers to pooled trusts by individuals age 65 and older. A Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) memo dated April 14, 2008, from Gale Arden…
The use of Pooled Trusts just became more viable as a method by which to protect assets from nursing home expenses.