Nursing Home Planning
Advance nursing home planning is for people who have significant assets and want to make sure they aren't all lost to nursing home expenses.
Why Plan Now?
People often come to me when they're already in trouble (and if that's the situation you're in – you might want to check out Nursing Home Crisis Planning).
If you're not losing sleep over nursing home bills, great! I'd like to make sure you never reach that point.
It's a common story that I hear all too often...
Mom (or dad) went into a nursing home. The bills are low at first. Mom has pretty good savings, and you're not sure how long she'll be in the nursing home. So you decide to just wait and see how things develop.
The months go by. Mom's condition worsens and the bills get a little bigger. You notice that mom's savings are getting lower. But mom probably doesn't have that much more time, does she?
Mom shows no signs of slowing down. She's had her share of medical problems, but nothing truly life threatening. Her bank account, on the other hand, is pretty much gone.
You start thinking now for the first time, "how are we going to pay for the nursing home now? Maybe an attorney has some ideas."
I don't want that story to happen to your family. And there are two simple things you can do that will help make sure it doesn't.
First, Find Out Where You Stand
You need to find out where you stand financially. Can you afford to pay for long term care? And for how long?
There are three steps to analyzing your financial situation.
The first step is to prepare a budget. You need to know how much you are spending (or expect to spend) each month on nursing home care and other necessary expenses. Be sure to subtract any monthly benefit from long-term care insurance from your expenses.
Next add up all of your available resources. Include everything you might possibly sell to pay for the nursing home (for example, the home of your single parent).
Finally, calculate how many months of nursing home expenses the resources will cover (divide the resources by the expected monthly expenses). Keep in mind, that nursing home and medical expenses will likely rise over time, so the actual number of months may be substantially lower.
The average stay in a nursing home is over two years (2 years and 5 months according to one recent study). Will your money last that long? And even if it will, is paying for nursing home expenses the best use for it?
Second, Consider The Alternatives
The good news is that there are alternatives to paying $200,000 or more for nursing home care:
- If you're planning for the distant future, consider long-term care insurance. The earlier you start your policy, the more affordable it will be.
- If your spouse or parent needs some assistance but could still live on their own, consider home care. Professional home care services are often much less expensive than traditional nursing homes.
- If your spouse or parent needs help with daily activities, consider a supportive living facility (also called an assisted living facility).
- But if your spouse or parent needs a level of care that can only be found in a nursing home, consider Medicaid planning.
Making a Nursing Home Affordable with Medicaid
You may have heard that you need to "spend down" or give away all of your property (often called "gifting strategies") to qualify for Medicaid. It is true that those are commonly used strategies. But they're not the only way to qualify for Medicaid.
How would you like to:
- Qualify for Medicaid without waiting months to spend down your assets or wait out a penalty period?
- Qualify for Medicaid without giving or gifting away all of your property?
- Qualify for Medicaid while keeping your money (even tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars) available for expenses not covered by Medicaid?
The Medicaid asset protection strategies we use may be able to help you and your family.
How to Get Started
Becoming eligible for Medicaid could save you thousands of dollars each month on your nursing home bills. Call us at (888) 909-1414 or contact us online to schedule a free confidential consultation to find out if we can help you.
