Medicaid allows for some assets to be exempt while others are non-exempt. If one member of the marriage should need Medicaid to go to a nursing home, the healthy spouse is only allowed to keep half of their non-exempt assets. Great! you say. They can keep their home. However, there may not be enough money to continue to maintain their home. Couples should make it a major goal to obtain and maintain income for the healthy spouse, who may live for 10 or 20 years longer. Prior to spending down assets, there are several solutions Swain Law Firm can provide to stabilize the income. 

To be in a better care facility, you must private pay for a specified amount of time before being given a Medicaid bed. There are very few Medicaid Nursing Home facilities (in Georgia there are approximately 50 top Medicaid facilities with an average of 100 Medicaid beds; many, many clients are vying for roughly 5,000 beds); therefore, you need a plan for how you will cover private pay. Also, if you should have a lengthy hospital stay, you can lose your Medicaid bed and have to private pay again until a new Medicaid bed opens up again.

Planning early instead of waiting for a health or financial crisis is important. Many people are not aware of the 5 year "look back" period that exists or that VA benefits can cover you in a penalty period.

A Medicaid Planner help clients:

• structure their financial resources,

• prepare documentation, 

• create trusts,

• manage asset transfers, 

• convert countable assets into exempt assets, and

• protect a family home from Medicaid recovery

1. Medicaid is only for the poor: Sixty-five percent of people who receive Medicaid are from working families. The program was originally designed to provide coverage to welfare recipients, but it was separated from the welfare system in 1996.

2. Spend down means you must have used all resources before applying for Medicaid: With successful planning, that is not the case. Sixty percent of nursing home residents are not on Medicaid at the time of their admittance into a facility. With the average annual cost of nursing home care being $60,000, the longer an individual remains in a facility, the more likely they are to deplete their financial resources and qualify for Medicaid coverage. Even after individuals deplete their assets, they are still required to apply their income, including Social Security and pension checks, towards their care costs, except for an average monthly $30 personal needs allowance. At Swain Law Firm, we help you minimize the financial damage.