The main forms of paying for care at an assisted living facility are private pay, long-term care insurance and veteran’s benefits. Medicare will help pay for brief rehabilitation periods in a skilled nursing home that follows a hospital stay, but does not pay for assisted living facilities. Medicaid may, depending on the state, provide some assistance with careful planning in advance.
It is critically important to plan ahead to preserve your family’s savings and loved ones estate at least five years before paid care is a necessity. Far too often we see families scrambling to make last minute preparations, leaving them with very few options for care that they can afford.
If Medicaid is needed, you must “spend down” to a point that Medicaid covers the cost of care. The patient must have nearly no assets, often less than $2,000, and will typically be left with very little money per month of his social security check or pension. In most states the patient is left with just under a dollar per day.
With advance planning, there are ways to help set aside funds so that the extra expenses not covered by Medicaid can be covered, and so that your loved one doesn’t have to forgo the assets and savings they worked so hard to accumulate.
In short, as soon as a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s is made, if your loved one has not begun the estate and Medicaid planning process with an attorney, do so immediately.
