Can I get paid to care for my father who has medicare and is bedriddin. If not, why do people on medicaid get that special treatment.

I am sorry .. I meant your father...

You are headed in the right direction. Search for an eldercare attorney in your state to find out about the service contract. But you need to set it up so that she is paying you your full worth of caregiving and if money runs out then medicaid will have to pick up. It may not be as much but you should be able to make it work. Now comes the tricky part. The state will turn you down first thing and then you will have to start and dig into the state and federal laws and push-push- push...

First get your mother on the "Waiver" list in your state. The HBCS Waiver.. most states have them except for 1 or 2.

We caregivers (mostly women I assume) need to unite and demand rights in this country!! (Otherwise you will end up like me.) Saving the state 20 years of caregiving dollars and joining the poverty class as a 7 dollar an hour health care worker with a masters degree in something else. Putting our parents in a nursing should be the extreme exception. The good old USA let the men of our world the last 50 years shovel their parents into nursing homes without a care in the world. This in not the law of human nature. Somehow we need to get it changed in this country. Far to many women (even incredibly smart women) are becoming impoverished and the brothers, men and states are balancing their budgets on our backs.

What if it's my mother's money? Can she pay me for caregiving during the look-back period for Medicaid? I didn't think about making it a legal service contract at the time, just stepped up. Now will she be penalized for paying more of the bills in exchange for my help?

You know, that is a good question. I believe that if the government gives out the money, they also want to regulate it, in their facilities. They can't regulate individual family members, or can they? Seems the government wants to control everything. But if they give you money, it's coming out of another taxpayer's pocket. The government takes out of the taxpayer's pockets, too. So...you'll have to ask them that question, or take your dad to one of their approved facilities if you want Medicaid. They pay if you go by their rules. What can we expect for free? But remember, your neighbor is footing the bill.