My wife has been declining in health since her brain surgery in 1990. She started by having migraines, seizures, severe depression, etc. She has been diagnosed with a right-sided weakness and now is totally bedridden since her leg muscles have atrophied.
She is currently under hospice care in a local retirement home, however, I will be taking her home on May 26th with the hospice following her here. The reason she is being brought back home is due to the cost of the home, which is $3,800 per month out-of-pocket!
My question is, how/can do I be compensated for my care as the primary caregiver?
Bottom line is some people accrue wealth to afford in-home care and others do not. Those who don't usually become unpaid help - relatives, friends, etc. Whoever agrees to help. Very doubtful that you as a spouse are going to be paid unless you just decide to pay yourself out of your joint income...and you will need to talk to cpa to set up appropriate employer/employee records keeping and pay tax on the earnings.
Contact an attorney.
A family member getting paid as a caregiver is a law. Although now I question "who pays?" - the cruelty inflicted on millions of Americans due to this administration is beyond belief.
Get whatever benefits you can now before its too late. Millions of us will die due to no federal healthcare. This is why I am one of the millions of protestors in the streets nationwide.
Their current bill passed Congress. It likely won't pass the Senate ... but who knows.
Millions of Americans will be affected in the worst of ways if they have their way ("millions for billionaires" and who cares about the rest of us?)
Supporting the low income, disabled, elderly is closely, if not now, 'a humanitarian right in America' a thing of the past. With this administration, I am hoping that we'll have a democracy in four years. I really doubt it.
Gena / Touch Matters
I will say that $3800 per month for a SNF sounds really inexpensive to me. Perhaps Medicaid is an option if paying out of pocket is a hardship.
Need more information to understand the reasoning and your statement.
If you do this as you have outlined, you are not entitled to any compensation. My mother was in hospice for a month or so in AL, they came in, cost her nothing except her usual AL charge. Your wife can go into a regular Hospice facility, we did not move her as we knew she was at the end of her life, she was 100.
And if not, DO NOT bring her home as you will be setting you both up for failure.
Hospice does nothing more than sending a nurse once a week to start and aides to come bathe your wife about twice a week. That's it as far as any hands on care. The rest will be on you.
If money is an issue please have the social worker at the facility where your wife is now, help you apply for Medicaid for your wife so she can remain where she is at, and where you can just be her loving husband and advocate and not her burned out and overwhelmed caregiver.
And to answer your question about being paid as her caregiver, the only options are if your wife is on Medicaid as they will pay for a few hour of caregiving per week, or if she is a veteran, the VA does offer some pay for caregivers as well.
Other than that your wife would have to pay you out of her money to care for her, but of course she would have to agree to that.
My late husband was under hospice care in our home for the last 22 months of his life and I was his primary caregiver. He also was completely bedridden and it was very hard work for me, yet I never once expected to be paid to care for him as he was my husband and I knew that I would do whatever it took to care for him until the end.
So just know that just because your wife is now under hospice care it doesn't mean that she will be dying anytime soon. This can go on for some time, so if you're not prepared to do her hands on care for many many months even years, it's best to leave her where she is at and apply for Medicaid.
LTC can be covered by Medicaid plus her SS income if she qualifies both financially and medically.
If she isn't imminently, actively dying... why is she in hospice and not LTC? I apologize but I don't understand your post. More information would be helpful.
I'm calling this post to the attention of the admins so they can move it to the Questions section.