I just got a call from our expensive but very good lawyer and my Mom’s Medicaid application was approved. Which is a huge relief, it was worth every penny.
It pays to do research on Medicaid eligibility. My family assumed my dad would not be eligible based on assets and income. And were preparing to sell the family home to pay for his nursing home costs But I pushed back on that and insisted the POA holder hire an elder care attorney to look into it.
In Fla, together their assets were under the Medicaid 120k threshold, the house is exempt but their combined incomes from SS and pension were too high for Dad to qualify. But a Qualified Income Trust QIT, allows you to meet the threshold by diverting the patients income through the trust to pay for the difference between his pension and the Medicaid’s income limit. Basically mom still got her ssi, and part of dads income too while the nursing home got the rest of his income. That saved them about 5k a month in nursing home costs.
He’s the comeback kid, got well enough to graduate from the nursing home if he wanted to leave. It was a good home, but my Dad no longer needed 24/7 and was the brightest sparkler in the joint. We wanted him together with my mom who was getting more frail and losing vision. So they were able to go to assisted living. That is all out of pocket but their assets remain healthy enough to pay for AL until the sale of the house. Luckily he retired with a platinum retirement package, just a worker bee mid level manager who took the early retirement offered while in his 50’s he and mom have been enjoying retirement longer than he actually worked. He’s nearing 90 now.