No Medicaid horror scenario!

First, do not let the hospital discharge him to anywhere but a SNF. He will stay in the hospital until they find a place, and they eventually will. Next, meet with the hospital social worker. She/he will help prepare the State Medicaid application. Your mother will be allowed to stay in the home and will not be left impoverished. Instead of doing the application with the SW, you may want to hire an elder attorney if significant assets are involved. It may be worth it if only for peace of mind. You also want to be careful when he does go to a SNF how the admission paperwork is signed and by whom. You or any of your family do not want to expose yourself to any financial liability. An attorney would be able to counsel you on that.

You must contact Social Services at once and tell them that your Father cannot come home, that you and your Mother cannot physically nor mentally care for him. This will get them in gear to find placement for rehab. Stay in close contact in rehab or SNF as well as you may need final placement and the phrase "He will not be accepted home" is the only phrase you need to stick to; do not fall for the nonsense that will begin about how "We can make this work; we will get your help." They cannot make it work and they will not get you adequate help.
Next step should be elder care attorney to help you with applications and with separation of income in a way to protect income for your Mom's future. There are other ways to go about this, but for myself, with little expertise in medicaid application and asset protection of the spouse, I would be going the way of the most expert help I could pay for.

Just need to say, if you allow a Social Worker to do the application, please be on top of it. My cousin was just told by our local Office of Aging to not allow the NH to do the application. I tend to agree but I am not one for allowing someone else to handle my stuff.

In my State you are only allowed 90 days from date of application to get the caseworker all paperwork needed, spend down any money and get the person placed. If not done in that period of time you have to start over.

If Dad goes into a NH, Medicaid allows for assets to be split and Mom becomes the Community Spouse and will not be made impoverished. No, Medicaid will not take the house. Its not considered a viable asset. Mom can remain in the home and have a car. But when Dad passes, Medicaid will put a lean on the house. But Mom can remain there till her passing.

Medicare pays only for rehab and that is only 100% the first 20 days. 21st to 100 days is 50%. He can be discharged anytime its felt he has gone as far as they can take him. That 100 days is not a given.

I have given u the basics. You really need to talk to someone at Medicaid. Every state has their own criteria and rules. If it gets overwhelming then consult an attorney versed in Medicaid law.

You don’t need to call around and find a facility to take him Medicaid pending. We went through this with my FIL. The hospital has social workers that will take care of the Medicaid application and find him a nursing home. What you can though is start researching local facilities and find out which ones take Medicaid that way you can tell the social worker your preference otherwise they will move him to the first bed they find and you won’t have any say in it. If he served in a war then the VA will probably pay for the nursing home & again the hospital social worker can navigate that process. My FIL served in Vietnam and the VA paid for the nursing home (it wasn’t even a VA home) and he got to keep his social security check.

Is Discharge Planning in the hospital working on finding im a rehab bed? That's THEIR job.

Is your dad a Veteran? If so the VA may have programs that could help. Depending on where and when he served it might be a little help or it could be a LOT

Apply for Medicaid immediately! Call your states Medicaid office and apply for "Medicaid pending status". You'll need their help applying. It's a tedious and time consuming process. Your dad would have to be functionally accessed also. Call nursing homes to see if any will take a Medicaid pending applicant. If so, Medicaid pending allows your dad to be placed in a facility while awaiting medicaid approval. Not all NHs will accept pending applicants. During this time his income will be used to pay for his NH care. Your mother will not be left impoverished or loose her home. Start the process now.