We are all busy with our daily lives: kids, work, and juggling hundreds of things at once. Often there is no time to stop and think about our future, about our golden years, our retirement, and what will happen when we may need assistance, home care, rehabilitation, or nursing home care. Even though a thought pops into our minds here and there when we turn 45 or so, these thoughts are often pushed away, because we are all busy with our life challenges.
Many people are under the mistaken assumption that once they turn 65 and can receive Medicare benefits, all their medical expenses will automatically be covered. However, Medicare and supplemental insurance will not help much with home care and will not cover nursing home care. When we are faced with a crisis unprepared, G-d forbid, we may end up spending all of our life’s savings relatively quickly. The average cost of a day in a Nursing Home is about $600, and if you need to hire a home health aide, you will pay $14-$27 an hour.
Medicaid may be the answer. Medicaid, not Medicare, will pay for nursing home care (Nursing Home Medicaid) and up to 24 hours of home care (Community Medicaid) for patients who medically qualify, when an eligible consumer’s assets are within the Medicaid guidelines. In addition, Medicaid can help pay Medicare’s high out-of-pocket costs for deductibles and coinsurance and can help subsidize the cost of prescription drugs. Medicaid also covers some of the gaps in Medicare, such as dental care, vision, hearing aids, and non-emergency medical transportation.
There’s been a recent change, however, that I’d like to share with readers, so they can keep them in mind and maybe take action before it’s too late.
The passing of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, signed March 18, 2020, and New York Governor Cuomo’s response to it, have a direct impact on transfer of assets rules for Community Medicaid. Until now, even with significant savings or home ownership, a person could transfer assets out of their possession even within the last month before applying for these Medicaid benefits.
For instance, if someone were planning on applying on August 1, they would have been able to transfer assets right up to July 31 and still qualify. Now, however, this “look-back” period is much, much longer. As of January 1, 2021 it will be changing to 30 months – that’s two and a half years!
Transferring assets is something you might consider, because although Medicaid does “allow” you to have a home under a certain value while receiving Community Medicaid benefits, the State reserves the right to place a lien on the value of the home upon the patient’s passing, to recover costs. Yet a home, for most people, is their one major asset, and they usually hope to pass it on to their family. It is the window for legal transfer of such assets that is now changing.
This change won’t take effect until this coming January. So it makes sense for anyone who is 65 and over, or under 65 and is disabled — to apply now — even if you currently don’t need home care — you will still get the benefit of lowering medication costs to about $1-$4 per medication, 20% of physician copays, and the full cost of medical transportation, medical and surgical supplies, incontinence supplies, glucose monitoring supplies for diabetes, and more.
Some people are already at some stage of this process, but have not completed it. Due to these new rules, they should not delay. Whether they are planning to transfer assets but have not yet done so, or they’ve transferred their assets but not yet applied — now is the time!
As a Medicaid consultancy, Eldercare Allegiance can help people understand this process, and can help plan and proceed with the transfer of these types of assets quickly, before the upcoming January deadline. Eldercare Allegiance gladly takes the time to help people understand how Medicaid works, and makes the process as simple and smooth as we can, using our experience, accumulated resources and connections. We’re passionate about helping families navigate the Medicaid system, and also help find the best fit for a caregiver provider, securing maximum hours of home care, connecting them with needed resources, and educating them about the process. We are sticklers for accuracy, and we follow through carefully on documentation submissions, making sure everything is done right and on time to avoid a denial of benefits. We help obtain, organize, complete and submit applications, let applicants know when they’ve been approved, and even handle annual re-certifications.
Contact us today for a personal consultation: 718-701-5900, [email protected] www.EldercareAllegiance.com
Is this only for New York?
Yes, this rule applies only for New York, I’m not sure about other states.
ITS NOT THE END
ITS THE EVEN THE BEGINNING OF THE END
BUT ITS THE END OF THE BEGINNING
Although now you have a small window of 30 months, the look back is 5 years. Also even after transferring of assets, the senior may still not be eligible for Medicaid and in order to avail him or herself of it, they will need to do a spend down. Often the spend down will use any funds they have for day to day living and may not be worth it. Another option would be a pooled trust.
I thought “conservatives” oppose universal healthcare because it is “socialism”. Both Medicaid and Medicare are forms of universal healthcare.
As a Canadian I can tell you what universal healthcare meanS for our neighbors to the north. Outpatient procedures even in an emergency have a waiting time of at least 3 months in most cases. This includes colonoscopy, mammography, MRIs, CT’s etc.Worse yet you need a referral. It is worse under universal healthcare than the cheapest HMO here in the USA!! Many excellent practitioners have left because the government has put a ceiling on how much a doctor can earn annually! Most specialists have booked the maximum allowed by April and May so they either leave the country and practice… Read more »