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I would like my father to go to a nursing home but I am not sure how the process works. He owns a house that has a mortgage and is on social security. He does not have much money and does not qualify for Medicaid. He has a mortgage and his living conditions are questionable. My sister is the primary caregiver but she suffers from hoarders mental issues and the house is a mess.

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Why doesn’t he qualify for Medicaid? How do you know? Does he have a Power of Attorney?
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Yes, why does he not qualify for Medicaid? That can be gotten around.
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Like everyone else, why does he not qualify for Medicaid?

There’s lots of bad info out there as to just what LTC Medicaid (that is the Medicaid program that covers a person room&board in a long term care facility, like a NH) is and isn’t. Having a mortgage doesn’t make you ineligible. Having a ton of credit card debt doesn’t either. Owing $ to utilities or health care providers doesn’t either.

LTC Medicaid does NOT give a rats butt if the applicant has debt.
LTC Medicaid is all about his being “at need” both medically and financially for LTC Medicaid. Medically it’s that he clearly shows “need” for skilled nursing care or memory care (if your state Medicaid covers MC). Financially it’s that his mo income is below your states max allowed - this tends to be abt $2200/2300 a mo- and no more than 2k in non exempt assets - so he has to have under 2k in his combined bank accounts. Basically it’s that he’s impoverished.
His home & a car are exempt assets, they do NOT count as an asset unless they are very high assessed value… like for homes it’s 500/550k for most states and higher on upper East Coast, 750/850k.

Does he fall within all these? I bet he does.
then it becomes a issue of how to get the info you need to get an application done for him and his documentation organized so those can be submitted so he can file an application so that he can enter a facility as “Medicaid Pending”.
Are you his POA? Or could he sign off for you to become this for him?
can you get into the house to find documents?
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Your father and my mother is in the same predicament. My mother needs to go to a nursing home too. She cant take care of herself, is incontinent and can barely walk. She has a house, mortgage and is on social security. She has a little savings that would pay for assisted living for 4 months and that's it. In my state (California) she does not qualify for Medic-cal which is the same as Medicaid because she makes a $1837.00 a month on social security and she can only make $1482.00. We were told to spend down her savings so we are doing this by putting her in a board and care for now. Once her money is spent down we are going to request for a Medical-cal waiver and hope for the best.

There is no way she or we can afford to pay for her care after her money is gone. The only caveat is when we sell her home, Medi-cal will placed a lean on her home to pay back her care. Maybe there is a way to do this for your father as well?

I hope you find answers.
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igloo572 Jun 2021
Melodic, as a suggestion I think y’all need to take a hard look as to IF mom continuing to keep her home is the best path.

Yes, Medicaid by and large allow them, to continue to own their home and have it as an exempt asset for their lifetime.
BUT here’s the rub…… Medicaid will require mom to have basically all her monthly income go as a copay to the facility she is in.
Mom will have no-nada-zero money to pay the mortgage or pay any other property costs once she moves into a facility. So it will fall to family &/or possible heirs to pay everything house and for an undetermined period of time and then deal with MERP aka estate recovery.

if there’s no mortgage and costs are minimal/manageable and there is the likelihood that heirs qualify for exemptions and exclusions to estate recovery, it can make sense to honor your elders wishes to keep their home & you gladly pay for everything.
But to me having a mortgage dramatically changes the situation. That mortgage and the insurance required if you have a mortgage must be paid; if not the mortgage co can foreclose & can force place insurance. Can you or your siblings pay mom’s mortgage and all mom’s property costs from now till beyond her grave? Could be two years, could be five. If there are lots of siblings are all equally willing & have the $ to pay their share till whenever?

Ive been on this site a long time and over & over it comes as a total surprise that there’s a required copay, but family rallies and is all government not going to take moms house for first few months, then before the year is out, Big Sis fails to pay the property taxes, Bro’skid stops cutting the grass, taxes go unpaid, someone is late or misses a mortgage payment. House ends up being sold, mortgage gets paid off and all the $ from house sale mom must use to self pay. All $ the kids paid on the house they cannot be easily reimbursed as Medicaid is going to look at it as gifting of $ from mom to you.
if the mortgage still has years to go, I just don’t think it’s feasible to keep it. Unless you can easily afford to have a second or third home, which it was it kinda becomes but you do not own it.
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