Longer answer: help them apply as it requires copies of many documents like banking, etc. My MIL is in a very nice facility and she is on Medicaid. She gets all the same care as the other private-pay residents. Heads-up: depending on what state/county you are in getting approved will take many months. If parents have medical bills they can't pay, don't pay them until they qualify for Medicaid. Then they can submit the bills for coverage if they were incurred within 3 months of Medicaid qualification.
FYI the Medicaid application is time-sensitive so be absolutely sure to send it in completed and accurate by the deadline listed or you will have to reapply. You can download the application on the govt/dept of Health + Human Services for your county website.
In the meantime you can call the county and have social services assess them for in-home care like meal prep, housekeeping and maybe driving. Good luck!
Medicaid is your only answer here. Unfortunately, in our country, there is no good and easy answer when you have no money. Fortunately, we do have Social Security and medicare and medicaid when there are no funds. Placement will not be easy. Hospice and elder care has become ALSO a part of the Military-Industrial machine, and most facilities would naturally prefer to take people with money, to whom they can charge the going price. I think that you are very wise not to think that what the answer is amounts to trying to fit the seniors into your homes and care for them when there is no one able to do that difficult 24/7 job. Your easiest plan for placement will come with any hospitalization, which of course will come. When the senior enters make it clear to social services that the family feels they are no longer safe at home alone, that there are no funds, and that they cannot RETURN home alone. Use the words "UNSAFE DISCHARGE" as these are the words that will get a Hospital licensing threatened under the Governmental JCAHO hospital accreditation. If they attempt to send them home say "That is an unsafe dischage" and if they attempt to get family to take them home with "We can make this work, we will help", don't believe them. I speak as a nurse who over 40 years pretty much saw it all. I am wishing you good luck. You might want to ask questions on the forum about how to qualify your parents for medicaid. Many here have been through the onerous process. I haven't so can't help there.
Longer answer: help them apply as it requires copies of many documents like banking, etc. My MIL is in a very nice facility and she is on Medicaid. She gets all the same care as the other private-pay residents. Heads-up: depending on what state/county you are in getting approved will take many months. If parents have medical bills they can't pay, don't pay them until they qualify for Medicaid. Then they can submit the bills for coverage if they were incurred within 3 months of Medicaid qualification.
FYI the Medicaid application is time-sensitive so be absolutely sure to send it in completed and accurate by the deadline listed or you will have to reapply. You can download the application on the govt/dept of Health + Human Services for your county website.
In the meantime you can call the county and have social services assess them for in-home care like meal prep, housekeeping and maybe driving. Good luck!
Your easiest plan for placement will come with any hospitalization, which of course will come. When the senior enters make it clear to social services that the family feels they are no longer safe at home alone, that there are no funds, and that they cannot RETURN home alone. Use the words "UNSAFE DISCHARGE" as these are the words that will get a Hospital licensing threatened under the Governmental JCAHO hospital accreditation. If they attempt to send them home say "That is an unsafe dischage" and if they attempt to get family to take them home with "We can make this work, we will help", don't believe them.
I speak as a nurse who over 40 years pretty much saw it all.
I am wishing you good luck.
You might want to ask questions on the forum about how to qualify your parents for medicaid. Many here have been through the onerous process. I haven't so can't help there.