Not the nursing home, but Medicaid can demand Life Insurance be cashed in as part of a spend down. If Dad is not going to be on Medicaid, the NH is a bit out of line asking to be beneficiary.
A little more detail please. Is the patient unable to further pay, or is this a new admission? I've never experienced this, no facility has ever raised the issue. I don't see why any life insurance proceeds should be assigned or transferred on any kind of unconditional basis if there are no outstanding balances.
It may be different with different types of facilities though; I'm only experienced with skilled nursing facilities for rehab post injury.
It will help if you can fill in your profile with some info about your caregiving situation.
A beneficiary won't see the money on life insurance until the person dies, if they die within the terms of the policy. (e.g. not suicide). I can't understand why a NH would want to wait that long if the bill is overdue, when they can probably get payment faster from Medicaid.
Medicaid is not medicare. Medicaid is for the truly poor who are not hiding money away in secret. Part of my plan with my mom is to sell her property, cash in her insurance, and basically spend every penny she has on care, then go Medicaid.
Sounds like you guys need to go talk to an eldercare lawyer ASAP to get affairs in order and protect your interests.
Right. Medicaid does look back 5 years and life insurance counts as an accessible funding source unless you have done your legal gymnastics ahead of time to make it and other things inaccessible.
My goal with my mom is to zero out her assets and spend it all on her care so when we do apply for Medicaid, it should be pretty simple.
It may be different with different types of facilities though; I'm only experienced with skilled nursing facilities for rehab post injury.
A beneficiary won't see the money on life insurance until the person dies, if they die within the terms of the policy. (e.g. not suicide). I can't understand why a NH would want to wait that long if the bill is overdue, when they can probably get payment faster from Medicaid.
Medicaid is not medicare. Medicaid is for the truly poor who are not hiding money away in secret. Part of my plan with my mom is to sell her property, cash in her insurance, and basically spend every penny she has on care, then go Medicaid.
Sounds like you guys need to go talk to an eldercare lawyer ASAP to get affairs in order and protect your interests.
My goal with my mom is to zero out her assets and spend it all on her care so when we do apply for Medicaid, it should be pretty simple.