My mom is currently in a nursing home and I am not happy with the care she is getting. I thought if the nursing home is getting paid why can't I take care of her in my home
The Medicaid program in your state may have several programs to help you and your mother.
Whether you can provide sufficient care at home is another question though. Consider hiring a geriatric care manager to help you prepare a care plan the would be acceptable to the facility's discharge planner, and your mother's physician.
Other programs that are available in my state (Massachusetts) are: Adult Foster Care (AFC), Community Choices, Group Adult Foster Care (GAFC), and Personal Care Attendant Program (PCA).
There is also a form of health insurance that combines Medicare with Medicaid to offer day care and come in-home home health aid hours. It is called PACE.
Talking with an elder law attorney who knows the Medicaid programs in your state, and your local ASAP (Aging Services Access Point), could open up many doors to achieve your objectives!
It's so sad that some states do well by their elders and family caregivers (MA is one) while many others do poorly and some do next to nothing. Is helpful in finding out state specific information that can lead you to resources. There's always a learning curve but check out this site for starters. Take care, Carol
You can care for her at home, but it is a 24/7 job that will kill you sooner than you think. My MIL got six hours pay a week. Absolutely no one here has ever gotten enough to replace the job they had. It would be basically self imposed imprisonment at an extreme poverty level.
I just got my mother approved for a medicaid waiver for at home care. Her condition is bedridden full care.i am waiting for an agency to come and access for hours. My friend got 8 hours a day monday through friday for her mother. She had to work fulltime because her husband died. Other than that she said they were offering 10 hours a week. I am hoping for 4 hours a day so i can hire weekend help with that money i now pay put for 4 hours. 8 years is starting to kill me, look how much money ive saved the government. i sure hope they help me so i don't die first.
Medicaid will pay ZERO to you. What they will do is send a little shuttle bus a few days a week to take your mom to some kind of day care center, pay for that, a few hours a day. As far as I can tell, that is IT. (Maybe respite care a few hours a year.) I was told by a Medicaid employee last year they are phasing out 'home care'. So a few hours a day, a few hours a week in some day care thing! You still have to: get them up. Get them dressed, wrassled into a diaper. Breakfast. Wait for the shuttle to come by (and remember, during a snowstorm or a holiday, they are a no-show). Get them, working as a team, onto the little van. You have a few hours....and at 4 p.m, they bring them back. Repeat, only backwards. Get them in, change their diaper, put out food, and whatever goes for the rest of the night. Repeat the next day....Medicaid doesn't pay for caregivers AT HOME, no, not you, nor your friend down the street, nor a professional from an agency.
It all depends on your state. What state and city are you in? Have you ever considered an adult foster care home? We just moved mom there and its wonderful. I can share more info with you if you message me. Care at home as others have said is brutal if you are on your own. Medicaid may pay for some again depending on your state but you will not get what the nursing home gets, not even close. Let me know if I can help you find an alternative. Ruth Anne
I have cared for my mother for almost 10 years. In CT there is a program that allows me to hire aids and a state qualified firm, Allied Community Resources, does the background checks and handles payroll. The person (the patient) needs a PCA waiver and be on medicaid. It's a little more complicated than just letting the Area Agency on Aging get you an agency, but you don't have to deal with said agencies.
On the other hand, if you are doing caregiving for the money, don't. Either do it out of love or don't do it at all.
That's the thing, it seems to be different in different states - some do have home care programs and help, others like NYS, very little. It is so hard to get answers, call the office for the aging and they stonewall you, give you the runaround, send you on a telephone wild goose chase, or flood you with gibberish your exhausted mind can't parse.
John thank you for the great info. Just wish states would use same term for things. Its confusing when one state calles one name and another state calles it something different even though its the exact same program. But thats government for you. Make it hard to find and even harder to understand....sigh😕
Whether you can provide sufficient care at home is another question though. Consider hiring a geriatric care manager to help you prepare a care plan the would be acceptable to the facility's discharge planner, and your mother's physician.
Agingcare.com has an excellent article on: The Money Follows the Person Program. Use the search box on this page to find it.
https://www.agingcare.com/articles/The-Money-Follows-the-Person-Program-189162.htm
Other programs that are available in my state (Massachusetts) are: Adult Foster Care (AFC), Community Choices, Group Adult Foster Care (GAFC), and Personal Care Attendant Program (PCA).
There is also a form of health insurance that combines Medicare with Medicaid to offer day care and come in-home home health aid hours. It is called PACE.
Talking with an elder law attorney who knows the Medicaid programs in your state, and your local ASAP (Aging Services Access Point), could open up many doors to achieve your objectives!
Take care,
Carol
On the other hand, if you are doing caregiving for the money, don't. Either do it out of love or don't do it at all.
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