Medicaid Planning

If you have an elderly loved one in a nursing home, you probably know such care is very expensive. Few people are able to save enough during their lives to pay for long-term care. Many people depend on Medicaid, at some point, to pay for their continued nursing home care. Medicaid benefits aren’t available until an individual has exhausted most of his or her own assets to pay for care. Families have the additional challenge of preserving assets for a spouse who doesn’t need care, while paying for the care of the spouse who does need it. This is where Medicaid planning comes in.

Medicaid planning is guidance offered to a potential Medicaid applicant before they need to apply for Medicaid benefits. This may include assistance gathering documents and filling out forms as well as helping to restructure financial assets so that a lifetime’s work and saving is not dissipated to pay for care. Some assets can be converted into a form that is not “countable” for Medicaid purposes. This restructuring requires a great deal of legal and financial knowledge, particularly since Medicaid laws are constantly changing.

Reeder Murphy has assembled a special team of professionals as part of our Elder Law Solutions client service team who understand the concerns families have when planning for a loved one’s long term care. You want the best possible care for your loved one, while not risking the financial well-being of your spouse or the rest of the family. Particularly when a nursing home resident has a spouse who lives at home, we want to help ensure that he or she will be able to continue doing so.