If I go to a assisted living facility on medicaid, how can I protect my home nd any insurance I receive in theevent of my husbands death? If I sell the home , how can I protect from a medicaid lien on the house and insurance?
Mr Frederick offers complete and sound advice. The point here is that each person has a specific factual situation and the only way to get a conclusive answer in the state you live in is to sit down with an elder law attorney. Anything short of that is just guesssing and will create problems for you and your family.
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Hope this helps.
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Mr. Fromm is licensed to practice law throughout the state of PA with offices in Philadelphia and Montgomery Counties. He is authorized to handle IRS matters throughout the United States. His phone number is 215-735-2336, his email address is [email protected] , for more tax, estate and business articles visit his website www.sjfpc.com. and blog
You have a multitude of issues, here, and there is no way to adequately deal with them in the limited space available. You really need to consult with an attorney who specializes in elder law, in order to determine precisely what your options are and how best to proceed.
To deal with just some of your summary:
1) Medicaid does not pay for assisted living; generally, only nursing home care, but some in home care can also sometimes be covered.
2) Your home is an exempt asset for Medicaid qualification, but if you sell it, the proceeds are considered countable. So if Medicaid qualification is something that you need, selling the home would be inadvisable.
3) You may not be able to protect against a Medicaid waiver, if you need benefits and the state actually pays for your care. State law allows the State to recover a portion of the costs that it pays out for your care. This is because Medicaid is a welfare program. They allow you to qualify without forcing you to sell your home. But when you have passed away (and your spouse is no longer living in the home), then your estate can be forced to repay some of the benefits you received. This is fair, if you think about it.
4) If your home is underwater, there may be nothing to protect from a Medicaid lien. If you have no equity, there is nothing to pass on.
These are SOME of the issues that you should discuss with an attorney. You should also make sure that all of your estate planning is up to date. You particularly want to make sure that both you and your husband have durable power of attorney forms, so someone can help take care of you, if you ever become incapacitated. These forms eliminate the need for probate appointment of a guardian and conservator.
James Frederick
Matthew Erik JohnsonBankruptcy AttorneySeattle, WA ·
Medicaid will not acquire any of your assets through the "estate rule" until after a surviving spouse has passed away. In addition, if your state has a "homestead rule", you can take an interest in the home from your husband free of creditors - including insurance. Thus the bank cannot sell your home while you are living in it.
However, if you sell or gift the home with a TEFRA lien still active, then the State can oblige them to use that equity value to repay past Medicaid spending for long-term nursing home care and other services.
To protect the asset altogether, early planning is best. You typically require at least 5 years to make gifts that are not reported when applying for medicaid. As a result, it may be too late to protect the home entirely.
Proceeding forward should be done very very carefully, and it would be best to explore options with an estate planner who has an extremely high proficiency in this sort of asset protection
Medicaid assistance is different in each state. In Florida, an Assisted Living Facility can be paid for by Medicaid if you qualify for the Waiver program. You must meet both the financial and medical eligibility requirements. An attorney who practices in the field of elder law can assist you with determining whether you meet these requirements. If you mark on your application that you intend to return to your home, Medicaid will not put a lien on your home. Additionally, you could execute an Enhanced Life Estate Deed to protect your home. Medicaid applicants can have life insurance policies that do not exceed a cash value of $2,500.00 or $1,500.00 for SSI recipients.
