What are Some Goals of Medicaid Planning in Florida?
There are two primary goals of Medicaid planning. They are to preserve assets for the purpose of enhancing the quality of life and care of the loved one who is in a nursing home or assisted living facility. To qualify for Medicaid, you can’t have certain assets, and you have to be out of money. Once that happens, Medicaid kicks in and provides the coverage.
When Medicaid is covering your care, the Medicaid rules require that the co-pay for your care include all of your gross income. In the State of Florida, a nursing home resident on Medicaid returns $105 for incidental and discretionary funds. For example, if someone has $50,000 and has to pay $9000 per month in nursing home costs, then they would be out of money within approximately five and a half months. At that point, they would qualify for Medicaid because they would have no money. However, when they qualify for Medicaid, they spend all of their income on the nursing home and are left with $105. That $105 could be used to keep up their home, provide enhanced quality care, pay for clothes, and pay for food if they don’t like the food at the nursing home.
What Are Some Basic Asset Rules Of Medicaid Eligibility?
The basic rules can be split up into two categories: assets and income. The rules for a single person requiring Medicaid coverage are different. We also have the basic for a married couple. With a married couple, we are concerned about the community spouse’s (or the spouse who’s living at home) ability to survive, as well as their quality of life while his or her spouse is in a nursing home.
There are three elements of the basic asset rules for Medicaid eligibility. First, determining the person’s countable assets exceed the $2000 limit. In other articles on this website, we’ll go over countable versus non countable and exempt assets. The second element is ensuring that our clients countable assets are below the threshold of $2000 by the last day of the month that we are seeking Medicaid eligibility. Medicaid is retroactive to the first day of the month in which we are seeking coverage, which means that if someone has run out of insurance coverage for their nursing home stay, Medicaid will help pay for that month. For example, if they run out of insurance coverage on the third day of the month and we have the assets under $2000 by the 31st day of the month, then Medicaid will be retroactive all the way back to the first day of that month.
The third element is that assets cannot be transferred in a manner which is contrary to the rules, which is basically defined as gifting. In other words, you cannot give away all of your money today in order to qualify for Medicaid tomorrow; this is against the basic asset rules. In a married couple situation, we have the same rules with the exception that the spouse living at home (who is known as the community spouse) gets to keep approximately $120,000. This number is raised each year.
For more information on Medicaid Planning In Florida, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you’re seeking by calling (904) 398-6100 today.
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