My friend is in California. She went to a wedding there and suffered a massive stroke. She will be staying there as her family is there. She has a very limited income, but she does have some money in savings. I am attempting to help them decide how to proceed with finding a long-term care facility when the time comes. They are attempting to get her into a group home, which is very expensive. I have told them that I think they should exhaust all her funds paying for the group home so that when she is ready for the long-term care facility she will be able to qualify for MediCal. I am from Texas, so I know that in order to quality for NH with Medicaid that you can only have so much money in the bank. Any ideas?
Your friend now needs to assign a durable PoA to help her manage her finances and medical care if she doesn't already have this in place. This should be done through the counsel of a CA elder law attorney. Plus, she should create a Living Will (POLST) which is an Advance Health Care Directive with the guidance of her physician (not lawyer) so she gets to decide herself how much (or little) life-saving measures she wants when she become incapacitated. A copy of this Directive needs to be kept by both her medical PoA and her doctor's office (any clinics she uses if more than one).