Medicaid recipients are not the only people who need the services of a Medicaid lawyer. Oftentimes the legal guardian of a child or the caregiver for an elder must act on their behalf to obtain Medicaid benefits or handle other Medicaid problems.
Medicaid attorneys and specialists also assist with crisis planning, which occurs when a senior needs Medicaid benefits within 30-60 days. An option to meet the income limit in this case is a Miller Trust, often referred to as a Qualified Income Trust (QIT).
Yes, you read that right: hundreds of thousands of dollars. Because Medicaid specialists and elder law attorneys specialize in Medicaid rules and the issues surrounding them, including how to plan for long-term care – how to best structure your loved one’s estate to ensure the best care for the best price. What is a Medicaid Specialist?
In these states for these specific services, non-attorney, Medicaid specialists often partner with attorneys to provide services. These states are Florida and Texas and to a lesser extent, New Jersey, Ohio, and Tennessee. Is a Lawyer Needed to get Medicaid?
If you have been denied such coverage, the best thing to do is to consult with a lawyer who specializes in Medicare and Medicaid law. Simply accepting a denial on a claim may not be a smart course of action. Many times, you do have legal recourse.
Although Medicaid and Medicare are run by the United States government, individuals do have rights under law. If you feel that those rights have been abused in any way, you need to speak to an experienced attorney.
Medicare And Medicaid. The Medicare and Medicaid system in the United States can be tremendously confusing. When you are denied Medicaid benefits or otherwise have problems with a social welfare program, it can feel like you are all alone.
On the other hand, Medicaid attorneys often focus more on the legal aspects of Medicaid planning, such as creating Medicaid asset protection trusts or Qualified income trusts, which makes them the better option for this type of assistance.
What Elder Law Attorneys Do? Elder law attorneys, also called elder care attorneys, estate and trust attorneys, or Medicaid lawyers, assist persons in preparing for long-term care and death. They assist seniors in a large and diverse array of legal tasks, which encompasses retirement planning, estate planning, creating wills and durable power ...
This strategy reduces one’s countable assets, while at the same time , protecting some of them for family. Essentially, Medicaid applicants gift approximately half of their “excess” assets (assets over Medicaid’s limit) to their loved ones and then purchase an annuity with the remaining “excess” assets. (An annuity turns countable assets ...
One such strategy that elder law attorneys can implement is a Medicaid asset protection trust (MAPT). This type of trust not only prevents one from becoming ineligible for Medicaid due to gifting assets ...
Medicaid attorneys and specialists also assist with crisis planning, which occurs when a senior needs Medicaid benefits within 30-60 days.
For persons who have Medicaid cases that are fairly simple and straightforward, a Medicaid planner, also called a Medicaid specialist or a Medicaid Advisor, might be a good option. Working with a professional Medicaid planner can be a lot more cost efficient than working with a Medicaid attorney.
Some Medicaid lawyers offer free consultations, while others charge an initial consultation fee or offer Medicaid planning conferences that range in cost from approximately $175 – $500.
The biggest difference between a Medicaid specialist and an elder law attorney is that Medicaid specialists are not lawyers. Likewise, elder law attorneys cannot call themselves “Medicaid specialists,” as this is not a designated law specialization.
A Medicaid specialist is a person or niche firm that specializes in establishing Medicaid eligibility, facilitating the application process, and even completing the actual application on behalf of the Medicaid recipient.
Elder law attorneys are experts in Medicaid and related issues, but their expertise extends to all broader issues related to elder care, aging, and the law – a wide-reaching, often complicated milieu of interrelated topics . An elder law attorney can do everything a Medicaid specialist does, and additionally offers legal services related to aging, ...
But an assistant at the nursing home promises the added cost won’t be necessary; they’ll help with your Medicaid application. Money is tight as it is, Medicaid rules are clear, and the nursing home can help you for free.
Or a life-changing injury. After the subsequent hospital visit and recovery, the doctors say your loved one will need to reside in a nursing home – indefinitely.
If you plan to set up a trust, living will, transfer of assets , or other legal considerations related to a loved one’s Medicaid application, an elder law attorney can save you money. Lots of it. Often, elder law attorneys will employ in-house benefits specialists / Medicaid specialists, to help structure assistance and thus save you money. ...
We might note that there are two ways attorneys charge for applications: 1) attorney asks for a retainer and bills hourly against the retainer; 2) a flat fee. Most clients prefer the latter since they know the fixed cost and the fee will be part of “spend down.”.
A Medicaid application will be rejected without “documentation” of the current cash value of the asset. It can take four weeks to get the needed paperwork. When children help elderly parents, finding or recovering the documentation can be challenging and time consuming.
And, yes, Medicaid will and does reject applications for lack of paperwork. That can be an unbelievable expensive. Again, Michigan nursing homes charge, on the average, over $8,400 per month. If a Medicaid worker rejects an application after three months the loss is over $25,000!
This person has much to lose. And, the need is doubly true if the client has a spouse. Clients do not hire an attorney to fill out a four to six page application.
Third: A little known fact is that Michigan has “Medicaid estate recovery.”. That means the government will take the house for repayment after the applicant and spouse dies. This can be a loss form $100,000 to $300,000 and up. Part of the attorney’s work is to make sure the government does not get the house.
Many Medicaid workers give clients and families wrong information. We see many mistakes that are not to the client’s benefit. For example, the agency will lose an application and tell the client to re-file with the result of loss of months of coverage. Your attorney will not allow that to happen.
The practice of Elder Law is a specialty practice that encompasses a broad understanding of aging and the law, and the interplay between the varied issues which may affect the elderly.
Families will find that many (if not most) nursing facilities, will not entertain a Medicaid Pending admission. This is because of two factors: First, during this period, the facility does not receive any reimbursement from the state because the state does not yet agree that this individual is a Medicaid recipient.
However, Medicaid is considered to be the go-to long term payor source for all residents living in a nursing home, because they cover (long term) custodial care. In securing Medicaid there are financial and clinical criteria to determine eligibility which sometimes requires a private pay ‘spend-down’ period.
As part of the transition of our patients from short term to long term care, families will typically apply for Medicaid on behalf of the resident (acting as their proxy) in order to secure a long term payor source for 24 hour skilled nursing care.
Second, during the Medicaid Pending period, there is never any guarantee that the application will be approved retroactively, once the state takes a closer look. In fact, the state may find a discrepancy or an issue which will defer eligibility and they will not pay the nursing home for the time in between.