Medicaid as you know varies from State to Sate in their rules. my point about the private pay for a certain length of time means that a nursing home that accepts medicaid may accept a patient for a period of time before medicaid. This has nothing to do with a medicaid application it just makes it easier to get a loved one into the facility of your choice. When someone who will need medicaid has been in hospital or Rehab need to continue to a nursing home medicaid makes them take the first available bed and there is no choice of facility. However if you have been private pay in a facility of your choice that accepts medicare they may not move you to a less desirable facility. My advice to people seeking long term care insurance is to save up enough money to private pay in a facility of your choice for six months. It is a much less expensive option than paying premiums on Insurance which get progressively more expensive the older the applicant. The older you are the less likely you will be able to get the insurance anyway because insurance companies hate to take risks. Part of the application process will be a mental evaluation by a trained healthcare provider.
I just thought of something else that might be pertinent and that is yes it's true that Medicaid back dates however there are some nursing homes that require private pay for a certain length of time before they except Medicaid so this may have less to do with when she's approved then they're supposedly rule about self pay for a particular length of time in which case talking to the nursing home social worker would do you a lot of good But you certainly aren't required to be the one paying it. If she's approved for Medicaid there should be absolutely no problem but since there is you need to get to the bottom of it may be an elder care attorney would help here too .
It sounds like your nursing home is giving you the runaround and I think about finding a different place. If you're having problems and I'll just imagine what they'll happen down the road. They know the rules more than anyone so it sounds almost like a scam. If you don't get satisfaction from the nursing home social worker I would try calling him department of aging and see if you could get an independent social worker but you don't want to have to mess with the stuff in now or in the future
From what I hear a medicaid application usually takes about two months and many nursing homes will accept a patient pending medicaid. Children are not usually responsible for their parents bills so we need to know more about the current situation. A good first step would be to have a talk with the nursing home social worker. Medicaid is paid from the date of application not the date when it is granted. The nursing home may be trying to get you to pay couple of months of private pay before they get the money from medicaid because they don't get nearly as much from medicaid. Consult an eldercare attorney if you can't get satisfaction or go to legal aid or the local council on aging. There is a lot of information out there if you are prepared to look.
What state are you in? Reason, after he dies, some states allow NHs to go after children and maybe even family of deceased to pay for any unpaid care.
My advice to people seeking long term care insurance is to save up enough money to private pay in a facility of your choice for six months. It is a much less expensive option than paying premiums on Insurance which get progressively more expensive the older the applicant. The older you are the less likely you will be able to get the insurance anyway because insurance companies hate to take risks. Part of the application process will be a mental evaluation by a trained healthcare provider.