Out of money. What are our options while we wait for Medicaid?

Twinbrow: Find out if the facility that she is in accepts Medicaid. An assisted living facility may be a sticking point.

How did the appt go?

I am with Lymie here, if she was in a NH/SN/LTC facility, I am surprised they didn't help start the application.

If in an Assisted Living, they are not obligated to help with an application nor help find you a facility. The only way an AL may help is if they accept Medicaid and if Mom paid privately for at least two years, which some States allow.

Be very aware that Medicaid, at least in my State, only allows 90 days to apply, spend down and find a place for the person. My Mom had 20k left. I applied in April, placed her May 1st. She paid May and June privately. In that two months, I was able to get Medicaid all the info needed. June I confirmed with the caseworker I had given him all the info needed and Medicaid started July 1st.

If you go with this service, keep on top of what they do. I was able to email all the info to the caseworker. If the service does it this way, have them cc you in. If they fax, you want proof of that fax. The quicker you get them the info, the quicker they can get it to Medicaid. The quicker everything is done, the quicker Mom receives Medicaid. Also, her SS and any pension will be needed to offset her care. If the info is not gotten to Medicaid within the time period your State has set, then u may need to start all over. Do not assume others are doing their jobs.

First, find out if the facility she's in will accept Medicaid at all. If they do, then facility will probably let her stay as "Medicaid Pending" and will be paid retroactively once Medicaid is approved. That's what happened in my case. My LO went in as private pay until her assets where exhausted and then she stayed there "Medicaid Pending" until Medicaid was approved. She's been on Medicaid many years now at the facility.

The facility had a "Medicaid Liaison" that helped with the application process. It's a nice service they offer, but my experience has been that there is massive employee turnover in that highly-stressful job. My experience was that week after week and month after month, the liaison told me that things were "in process" and "shouldn't be much longer" etc. Turned out he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing and was not submitting our paperwork to Medicaid. Other families were affected as well to the best of my knowledge. He quit his job suddenly and I was not informed he had even left until I went over his head to corporate about the delays and was told he was gone. Facility was desperately trying to play catch up behind the scenes without alarming the families. His replacement decided she was "not comfortable talking about people's money" and quit suddenly as well. I mention this because Medicaid is a tedious process. Please stay on top of it. If a liaison person tells you something is in process... ask the questions. Ask them to whom it was submitted and on what date. Ask them other specifics and let them you are their partner in this, but are also paying close attention and will not tolerate empty promises and/or lies. Find out who their supervisor is right at the get-go in case you need to make contact.

Lymie61 s reply is exactly what my in laws facility did.. they know things shake out .. talk to the facility to ease your mind..

Does she have any assets that could be liquidated? Nursing homes sometimes require payment even after death if they have assets. However, If other family is living in the home, they can’t take it. Check into the laws for that. I took care of a lady who got the Medicaid Wavier while in the hospital. Before that, I wrote a letter to Social Services stating that when she gets better she would be returning to her homes. That prevents the nursing home from taking it. Unfortunately, she became too sick at the end and she passed in the nursing home. They wanted to send her home a few weeks before her death when she could not care for herself at all. I wrote letters after letters advocating for her to have them put her in physical therapy to strengthen her, get a mental and physical evaluation, etc. Before doing any of this, I had POA and Medical Directive on her. I stayed on top of the situation and was always a step ahead. I looked up laws and called Social Services, Lawyers, etc. it was a lot of work, but I learned so much. I hope that she gets placed somewhere acceptable to everyone.

As others have noted, not sure what type of "home" your mom is in. She needs to be in a Medicare and Medicaid qualified long term nursing home or what may also be called a "skilled nursing facility" or SNF.

These facilities have staff, who can help with the Medicaid application. Given the home your mom is in referred you to an outside service, I have to assume where she is now is not Medicare/Medicaid qualified; and that may mean she may have to move to another facility that is so qualified.

She -- as others have noted -- could enter "Medicaid pending" if you can find a facility to take her in that way; there is no mandate that they accept an applicant.

If you do not have the resources to hire an elder care attorney to help with all of this, I would recommend calling your area agency on aging to help navigate all of this if the home where she is now (appears to be the case) cannot help. If you have a law school nearby, often they may have pro bono help offered by law students.

On the application process, if you are able to set up on-line approaches to apply that makes it all go much faster. Most states have an on-line Medicaid long term nursing care application portal and if you have a durable power of attorney (POA) and have on-line access to all her accounts you can basically take over on the application and upload all the required documents rather than depending on "snail mail."

Again, a nursing home if Medicare and Medicaid qualified can help with all of this and they can upload documents for you and help get the application processed quicker as it is in their interest so Medicaid starts paying sooner.

If the facility she’s in accepts Medicaid and the application is in so the process has begun it shouldn’t be a big problem because providing she is approved they will pay retroactively. Typically though I believe the facility does a lot of the work and is involved in the application process is this the case with your moms application? If not you need to talk to the office at the facility before panicking too much.

Is she in adjusting home or assisted like going as stated in your profile? How long has she been there?

Be careful of that outside agency. Nursing homes usually have staff that assist with Medicaid application that would not charge you.

In our state, a NH can not discharge a patient without proper placement. A similar situation happened to our father in 2008 and we held firm that we could not care for him properly. They found a few facilities that were too far from me and my sisters and we continued to hold firm that they were not appropriate and we could not come and get him with no place to go. The result was, at midnight on the last day, he was sent to the hospital as an abandoned vulnerable adult. As soon as we were notified, we went to the hospital and clarified he was not abandoned. Once there, a social worker was assigned and appropriate placement was made. As someone else suggested, contact elder authorities and get them involved. My heart goes out to you and I hope for the best.

She needs to go to a nursing home that accepts Medicaid pending. What I would do is contact the ombudsman and your state's elder protective services and let them know the situation. A state social worker will be able to find a facility that would be appropriate for her a lot quicker than you can. Whatever you do, don't just take her home with you when her money runs out. (I'm assuming the facility she is in now does not take Medicaid? Is that correct?) The facility must discharge her in a safe and responsible manner.

I have an appointment on the 6th. The home she is in referred me to an outside service.

Its called Medicaid Pending. The process takes about 90 days and it should not take longer than that. Is the NH helping you to apply. Have you given them everything they need to apply?