Find Senior Care (City or Zip)
Join Now Log In
I
irishmerm27 Asked April 2016

Where to determine the status of my mother on the county's Waiver Services Registry with no luck?

Trying to find financial assistance. She is in assisted living and I was told years ago about an assisted living waiver, where the state would pay for up to half of the assisted living costs. I just called the telephone number for the Waiver Services Registry and got no answers other than that names were released from the wait list in 2009???

debdaughter Apr 2016
Joann, none of this is Medicare billed; we had that at first, not quite sure how since no hospitalization or rehab but came for physical therapy but quit after said it wasn't doing any good, especially since he wasn't taking his pain meds like he needed to for it to, which may be how they got by with quitting, but I thought you meant that they just couldn't be there at the exact same time, not that they couldn't be there as long as the Medicare people were coming, which nobody else was anyway then, so doesn't matter; was only after they quit, because wasn't just a matter of the PT but the actual other care they were providing that was especially needed, that we got the other started, see how it goes now

debdaughter Apr 2016
BB, is your child disabled?

ADVERTISEMENT


lmb1234 Apr 2016
JoAnn29 - We are also in NJ and my mother is on Medicaid and in AL as she was determined clinically eligible for a "Nursing facility level of care in a nursing facility or home and community based services waiver." You are correct that many AL's want the resident to first pay out of pocket for a couple of years but there are a few AL's (my mother is in Spring Oak of Berlin, NJ, a really excellent facility) that take Medicaid from the outset. Of course, there is typically a waiting period of potentially up to a year for a shared Medicaid room. Our family has kicked in the additional $'s for mom to have her own efficiency room, and when we said we would do that, she kind of became an initial "private pay" and they did have available efficiencies very quickly. You really have to do your homework on what AL's will accept Medicaid only, and the Dept. on Aging and Medicaid personnel are typically very helpful in this regard. Maybe this info will also be helpful to irishmerm27, who began this original thread....good luck, all!

BBTroubled Apr 2016
If you live in the State of Mississippi and receive Medicaid Wavier, how much of the home place will they take away from your living child when you pass away?

JoAnn29 Apr 2016
If they don't bill Medicare for services no problem. We have a homecare that comes into the home after a hospitalization or rehab that bills medicare. I worked for a non-profit that could not be at a patients when Homecare was there. We resumed after they discharged the person.

debdaughter Apr 2016
JoAnn, you're right, which is why thought it would be simpler to use the same agency so there could be no question of two in home services be at the same place, at least at the same time, which is what I think you're really saying, don't think there's a problem with them being at the same place, at least neither of them thought so, although have heard something may need to check but was just seeing how things played out, but either way in this case neither were billing medicare; they won't pay for just inhome services, only for home actual health. I do wonder about yesterday, however, re your statement re doctor appt., since he did have one yesterday that would have been billed to Medicare, and that was the very day that supposedly the inhome service finally came, yet the one who came today this was her first day, so...but, again, thought only applied if the times overlapped

JoAnn29 Apr 2016
My understanding is two in home services can't be at the same place. Both cannot bill Medicare for the same services. Thisis so too if a patient has a doctor appt the day an agency nurse is to come. The nurse should be informed be cause she cannot bill Medicarethe same day a patient sees a doctor.

JoAnn29 Apr 2016
My understanding is Medicaid does not pay fo AL. I'm in NJ and have two AL facilities near me. Both require at least 2 years out of pocket pay. At about $5000 a month a person needs $120,000 of private pay. Most people sell their homes to accomplish this. SS, pension and VA assistance helps in the total. Once people have spent down, my assumption is the facility will help in obtaining Medicaid. The only other way to have Medicaid pay is a nursing home. There must be a Social Worker on site. Talk to her and see what options you have.

debdaughter Apr 2016
well, yet somebody else just showed up

debdaughter Apr 2016
I'm in Alabama and we have the waiver program, for which you do have to qualify to Medicaid but it's a different income limit than regular Medicaid, about 3x higher but hub's aunt and uncle still didn't qualify, their income still being too high, but they do have a regular state program that just got new funding that had them going through their waiting list and releasing names, bringing theirs up for assessment; the lady just came out on Good Friday and approved them for services, but this was for in-home care, not sure about if they were in a facility, but we seem to have a crook in the matter with him being a veteran already getting their home care so thinking it would simple to use the same agency but appears to be making it more complicated; they were concerned about providing services under 2 different agencies and also were required to notify the VA regarding it and with VA having just built a new local medical facility and transferring all the local vets to it from where they'd been going and assigning new social workers who hadn't been involved in so had to check with their supervisors at the big VAMC, who were also new, not only to their position there but to geriatrics in general, because the one who'd been handling all this had been promoted, has caused some confusion but the head of the agency finally did come out and did her new formal assessment that had to be done with starting services for the state program the on top of all that the aide who had been providing the home care retired the very day the state program assessor came out when she was supposed to be bringing her replacement for intros and all but she finally did come or somebody did because when the agency head came she brought yet somebody different

Guestshopadmin Apr 2016
I live in Texas and YES Medicaid has waivers. However, Texas, Florida, Georgia and some other states refused the Medicaid expansion offered under the Affordable Care Act. So a lot of the programs are no longer funded or have a super long waiting list. My son is autistic and the waiting list for housing is only now adding people from 2011. Longer lifespans mean that people don't drop off the waiver list either.

Pamydory67 Apr 2016
Yes, is very important which star you are because each state has its own laws. I'm in GA also searching for my mom. Here she has to be on SSI and Medicaid to at least apply for any community waiver services. But as I have searched up to now here no assisted living is subsidized by Medicaid. Just nursing homes when the person qualifies. So you need to start with applying for SSI, Medicaid for her. Search in your state Medicaid to check which are the waivers approved by Medicaid there.

Ambriel Apr 2016
What state are you in? I' in Georgia and having the same problem, but it seems all the funds for any assistance programs has dried up. My mother doesn't qualify for medicaid because she makes just above the limit of 1010.00 per month. It's a nightmare, I am having to pick up the extra cost for the assisted living. Try calling your state SHIP office. That's what my next step will be.

ADVERTISEMENT

Ask a Question

Subscribe to
Our Newsletter