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My mother has $30,000 in the bank.
Can i application now and when her funds run out medical assistance will take over. Or do I need to wait until she has in,y $2,000 then apply

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Our mom got only 1600 SS, but as the widow of a WWII vet, she could get 1100 a month from the VA. BUT we were able to rent out her house, a double, for 1350 a month.
Most AL facilities are private pay only. You need to know if they will even accept public assistance patients. Then you need to know if the state you live in will cover AL facilities. Some don't.
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Unfortunately, what Pam said is my understanding also. The reason my mother is not in assisted living is that her monthly income is less than the monthly charges and she has no savings or assets. Medicaid will kick in only if she becomes impaired enough to need nursing home care. Then they will pay for part of assisted living under a state waiver program, but only the amount in excess of the regular monthly charges, which are already more than her income. So she would have to go to a nursing home to use Medicaid in my state. Your state's rules may be different; you have to check.
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In the state of Massachusetts you can get on a waiting list for affordable assisted living. There are a couple different types' some are public others are private. In public assisted living the rent is based on income. We also have a program called Elder Choice where private facilities provide 20% of their units at a lower rent to lower income individuals (approx 50% or less than the area median income). In my town we have a lot of very nice subsidized elderly housing. It takes a while to get in so people put their names on the lists early.
Maybe your state offers such housing programs?
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Here (Minnesota) many ALFs will accept Medicaid for residents who have been private pay for a specified length of time, even though they do not take it for new residents. And here the Elderly waiver program does extend to ALFs.

But your mom is not in Minnesota, so find out what happens where you are. I'd start by discussing it with ALF administration. What is their policy when a resident runs out of private-pay funds? At least do the research now. You can decide exactly when to apply later.
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Does mom have enough health issues that she could show the need for skilled nursing care, therefore mom goes into a NH rather than AL? If she could, I'd suggest trying to get her medical history to show need & find a NH to admit her as"Medicaid pending" within this next year. She doesn't have much money, you could easily do a 30 day spend down if you needed to between her monthly cost at AL and then have her get a NCV prepaid funeral, some dental work, new eyeglasses & hearing aids, tricked out walker...poof! 28K gone so mom is likely eligible for Medicaid.

As others have said, AL may not be on the Medicaid waiver program. You have to be very clear in this and what the terms are. Another thing to remember is that AL waiver funding can change - like the state can decide to put $ into another program (my state is doing this to pay for PACE), or the AL can choose not to re-enroll and only do private pay. What guarantee is there from this AL for medicaid beds? - get this in writing. Also AL does not have the regulations (like NHdo) that safeguard the residents ability to stay - so if your elder on a Medicaid waiver goes for a hospitalization, the AL does NOT have to hold his bed for an interim period of time like a NH is required to do and if they do, the waiver bed can go to another resident, so your elder is now private pay. Only NH is dedicated funding from Medicaid if the facility participates.

I moved my mom from IL to NH and bypassed AL, no cakewalk but can be done. There will be work with & visits to her docs to have her health history show the need for "skilled" in the next few months but do-able. Good luck with whichever path you take.
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You are probably allowed to use some of the money to either prepay her funeral or have a specific account for funeral expenses. Also, look into a disability trust. If you have or can get a disability determination then you can send any excess to the trust and Medicaid can't touch it. You then send the trust bills, receipts, etc and they mail you your money back. I got one set up for the lady I take care of, so instead of giving Medicaid the spenddown, it gets sent to the trust and she gets to keep it. Most people don't know about it.
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