3. Paying For Nursing Home Care

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For many people, placing a loved one in a nursing home is emotionally trying and financially frightening. Unfortunately, much of the information currently being passed around about Medicaid and nursing home law is incorrect. For example, under Medicaid law, a person who enters a nursing home with assets in a Revocable Living Trust is often in a worse position than if the trust had not been established at all.

Medicare and other health insurance only cover the type of nursing home care that is essentially rehabilitational, and often for less than one month. Without long-term care insurance, many nursing home residents are faced with the dreary prospect of paying for their care until just about all of their assets have been depleted, then filing a MassHealth application to obtain governmental assistance with their nursing home bills. (Medicaid is now known in Massachusetts as MassHealth.)

Under MassHealth law, assets can be preserved even after a nursing home stay has begun, especially for the nursing home resident's spouse. In some circumstances, gifts can still be made. A Certified Elder Law Attorney can help with details of the MassHealth application and the legal planning that is necessary to make sure that the nursing home resident will receive appropriate care without needlessly losing everything.

While no substitute for individualized legal advice, the following articles cover many of the issues related to Medicaid/MassHealth and paying for nursing home care.

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Related Articles

• Despite Medicaid Transfer Restrictions, Some Transfers of the Home Are Always Safe
  The home can sometimes be given away without penalty even after a nursing home stay has begun
  
  
• Preserving All Assets and Maximum Income for the Community Spouse When the Other Spouse Enters a Nursing Home
  The spouse who remains at home often has some important choices to make with an unbiased legal advisor
  
  
• Last-Minute Medicaid Planning in Massachusetts
  Even after a nursing home stay has begun, some asset protection planning can still be done
  
  
• Fitting Tax Planning and Immediate Annuities into Last-Minute Medicaid Planning
  
  
  
• A Potpourri of Cutting-Edge Issues in Massachusetts Medicaid
  Planning maneuvers that have been tested and have worked
  
  
• Problems with Outright Gifts in the Medicaid Planning Context
  An irrevocable trust is often a better planning maneuver than an outright gift
  
  
• Applying and Appealing to Receive Retroactive Medicaid Benefits
  Whenever a denial is received, file a timely appeal, or else
  
  

Copyright 2001-2006, Attorney Brian E. Barreira - 508-747-8282 - serving Plymouth, Hingham and surrounding counties. Site by RW Mullaney Consulting.

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