How can I apply for Medicaid on my father's behalf while living in a different state than me?

jreiner50: I believe the answer that you're looking for is yes, you can establish a Medicaid account for your parent even if you, yourself live elsewhere. I mean how would they, the elder, know how to do it? I agree with others that you should seek the services of an elder law attorney. One VERY important thing that you may not be aware of is that Medicaid is going to do a 5 year lookback, which essentially means that you will have to produce records, e.g. bank receipts, etc. from 5 years back. You may want to consider applying for DPOA.

as already mentioned your number one priority is to schedule a visit with an elder law attorney. There is absolutely nothing more important than this.

Even though my FIL and I were in the same town all the Medicaid process was handled by phone and mail. You definitely need POA to obtain the documents you will need to provide but, you should be able to handle it all through mail, fax, and phone. Medicaid can also provide a release document for those 'hard to deal' with accounts.

I did my moms medicaid & I live in another state. If you've been involved in your parents life & have some idea of finances & they aren't fighting you on decision-making, it can totally work. I'd suggest that you get a couple of binders going (financial, medical & if dad still has his home one for house) and are going to have to get your DPOA MPOA done & notarized for dads state if yiu don't have this. I'd schedule an elder law atty visit as priority #1 for your next visit to do this & review existing old legal. I'd also suggest you become a signature on dads bank accounts and have all done POD to you if dad is still competent enough to change accounts to POD ( bank officer may have dad in a office by himself). Get the POAs done first as the bank & facilities will make a copy of them. btw SS will not accept a DPOA, if you find you have to deal with SSA (& they will likely want to make you do the resonsible payee hurdles) try to do any SS stuff on-line with dad sitting next to you instead....

Remember always sign everything as "Jane Smith Jones as DPOA for Frank Smith" for all paperwork but SSA.

Medicaid mailed me a duplicate on everything for my mom. It's important to get the mailings as dad's state may do annual medicaid renewal or other compliance that MUST be dealt with ASAP.

Good luck & stay organized!

Call the Area Agency on Aging in HIS county and ask how to go about this.