What is Medicaid Planning In Florida?
Medicaid planning surrounds the cost of long term care. Skilled nursing care in Jacksonville, Florida generally costs between $8,000 and $12,000 per month. Because long term care skilled nursing is so expensive, a common concern of consumers is how to protect their estate from the high cost of long term care when they can no longer perform the activities of daily living. Since people are living longer with modern medicine, many people live to the point where they have general muscle weakness and cannot move, or cognitive decline and can no longer manage their affairs. (Xanax)
Clients who want to protect against this high cost need to look into Medicaid planning. No one actually plans to be on Medicaid. It’s just a term that describes what protecting your assets from a nursing home entails. The goal of Medicaid planning is, at the time of needing skilled nursing care or other Medicaid benefits, a person’s assets are below a certain threshold for eligibility, which in Florida is currently $2,000 for a single non-married applicant. Upon the creation of Medicaid in the 1960s, people would become eligible by giving their assets away the day before they needed nursing home care. As a result, the laws had to change to create a look-back period, where the government can look back at how long ago you gave away your assets to reach this Medicaid eligibility threshold.
The look back period is currently five years. Therefore, for people who do not foresee being able to private pay for skilled nursing home care, Medicaid planning is a very prudent decision. Generally, before people go for Medicare planning, it can also be used in place of long term care insurance, if you cannot afford or qualify for it. It can also be used in conjunction with long term care insurance because Medicaid programs favor long term care insurance benefit programs in considering your financial eligibility.
The common questions that come to me regarding Medicaid planning are very consistent: Will I lose my home? Do I have to spend all my money down? Am I too late to do anything? These are the most common questions that I hear and a lot of misconceptions are based upon the fact that some states treat the Medicaid laws differently than the state of Florida does. If you’re looking to protect your assets from long term care costs, look for an elder law attorney who files Medicaid applications for clients on a regular basis.
Is This The Same As Asset Protection?
Medicaid planning is a form of asset protection. When people use the term asset protection, it can be construed as a general topic. For some people, it’s about potential lawsuits or due to personal injury claims. For others, it could be liability relating to high financial risk. The demographic that an elder law attorney serves is the age sixty to one hundred demographic, who are concerned about long term care costs. For them, Medicaid planning is a form of asset protection.
What Are The Income and Resource Levels for Medicaid?
The income and resource levels for Florida Medicaid tends to change each year. The Medicaid programs that concern most of my clients are the nursing home Medicaid programs, called the institutional care program or ICT Medicaid and the home and community waiver based Medicaid. The income level for an unmarried individual is $2,349 of gross income per month. Gross income is defined as your income before deductions for things like your Medicaid part B premium, federal income tax holding, and other types of deductions from your paycheck. The Medicaid asset limit for a single individual is all countable assets must be below $2,000 for every month in which Medicaid eligibility is being sought. For a married couple, the asset limit is expanded. For a spouse who does not need Medicaid benefits, the asset limit is $128,640 – these assets are not countable for the spouse seeking Medicaid.
For more information on Medicaid Planning In The State Of 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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