ELDER LAW AND MEDICAID PLANNING
Concerns of the Elderly and Their Family:
• How can I protect my family home if I enter a nursing home?
• How will I pay for the rising cost of healthcare?
• How can I protect my life savings?
• How can I avoid probate and pay the least death taxes?
• How can I insure that my family will inherit my estate?
Elder Law is a focus on life care planning to insure that the total health care and estate planning needs of an individual are addressed, from a multi-disciplinary perspective that includes the following range of services:
• Asset protection planning
• Medicaid planning
• Use of long-term care insurance
• Health care decision-making and the use of advanced directives
• Estate planning and the use of durable powers of attorney, living trusts, wills and real estate strategies to protect the family home
• Housing options and alternatives to nursing homes
Long Term Care
Elders are often concerned that the cost of long-term care in a nursing home will deplete their assets and force them to lose their home. The cost of nursing home care in Massachusetts, now estimated at between $90,000 and $115,000 per year, only serves to compound these fears. Moreover, the cost of long-term care insurance may be beyond the means of middle-income elders and often times is not available to elders due to pre-existing medical conditions.
Understanding Medicaid
Many elders receive assistance from the federal Medicare program to help pay medical expenses and the cost of prescription drugs. Medicare, however, does not pay for extended nursing home care. Medicaid, called “MassHealth” in Massachusetts, on the other hand, is a joint federal-state program, which pays for nursing home care for individuals that meet their financial eligibility rules.
Understanding the complex Medicaid rules is the key to informed long-term care planning and asset protection. In determining the financial eligibility of an individual applying for Medicaid, Medicaid looks at the applicant’s assets and income.
Although the Medicaid recipient’s home may be an exempt asset, Massachusetts under many circumstances will place a lien on the home to collect for the Medicaid benefits received. Attorney Atkins instructs clients and implements strategies on the various ways that the home can be protected from this lien.
Contact Attorney Merrill J. Atkins for a complete analysis of your personal situation to determine your best approach to retain your home and assets and gain public benefits.
