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My mom, 96, is presently paying for her own care in an adult care home at a big expense. She only has money to stay for a year and has already been there 3 mos.
We switched her from my brother's house to the adult care home because she needed 24/7 care but medically she is in great shape. Some dementia and incontinence and is in a wheelchair. Can't do anything herself but has no major health issues.


We planned to move her to a nursing home after that because the adult home doesn't take Medicaid. I don't know when to start the process of getting her onto Medicaid or if she will be accepted into a nursing home once she is out of money. No one in the family can care for her anymore. Is it better to look for a place to take her now, or wait until the year is almost up and then make a change? This will be very hard on her anyway, but with the Covid restrictions we didn't want to just move her from seeing everyone to seeing no one. Now people can visit. But I would like to be able to pick a nice nursing home and I'm not sure that will be possible if she has no money left.


Anybody have any ideas to make this a smooth transition and as painless as possible? She loves where she is now and I hate to move her again but I think it will be inevitable. I live in NY State.

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My Mom was in an AL running out of money. She went from there to the NH spending the money she had left to private pay for 2 months. That was the spendvdown. The NH excepted Medicaid and agreed to the 2 month private pay and then Medicaid would kick in. Medicaid didn't care how I spent down the money, just that I did before the 90days was up. I could have spent down at the AL and started the Medicaid application, that would have given her 4 more months there. But its easier finding a NH if you can pay privately for a while. Which to be honest, I should have done instead of putting her in the AL for 8 months. But I was hoping to sell her house and getting the 2 yrs in needed to be able to have Medicaid pay for her AL in my state.
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Thank you everyone for your very informative answers. This will be the really hard part for me. Mom loves the adult home where she is and has already been to a nursing home once and hated it, so I know this will not be easy for either of us. Please keep us in your prayers.
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It may be easier to find a place for mom if you move her now. She will have to self pay and spend down. If she were in a Medicaid accepted facility now it would be easier to get one of the Medicaid beds.
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In my state you only have 90 days from application to spend down, get info needed and get the person placed.

With my Mom, I took what was left of her money and paid privately in a a nice NH. That spent her money down. I started in April with the application. Placed Mom May 1st. This gave me the time to get info needed. I confirmed in June that the caseworker had all he needed and Medicaid started July 1st.
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vacayassist May 2021
That is what the adult home told me to do before I placed her in a NH. I guess I will get started looking now but she only moved into the adult home in Feb.and she loves it there so I don't really want to move her too quickly.
If she has enough money to stay in the NH for 3 mos., I was told, then they would probably accept her and let her do a spend down at the NH and then go on Medicaid. It sounds like your mom was in a nice place and then moved to another place where Medicaid kicked in. Am I reading that correctly? She didn't have to do the spend down at the second nursing home for awhile before they took her?
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I would start to look now so you won’t be rushed. You can take your time to find a suitable facility.

I would look at places nearby if you don’t like driving far but don’t let distance be the only determining factor.

Look for a place that suits your mom’s needs best.
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Start now.
Ask the Social Worker, if there is one for recommendations for other facilities in the area that will accept Medicaid. (Often a facility will "find" an opening if the referral is coming from another facility.)
Also start touring on your own and when you find a place you like also ask them if they can help with the process.
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vacayassist Apr 2021
Thanks Grandma1954. Is it true that you can find a better place if you have money do you know, or is that just the luck of the draw even if you are on Medicaid?
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