How Not to Lose Medicaid (Part 2)
In my post last week I explained that once a Medicaid application is approved, everything isn’t on autopilot. What I mean is that you must be vigilant so as not to lose the benefits once you have them. That can happen a number of ways such as a change in circumstance.
How Not to Lose Medicaid (Part 1)
Whenever I talk to families about how to get Medicaid approved, there are so many elements to a successful application and so many confusing requirements that the tendency is to relax a bit, thinking the job is done when we first get the application approved. One example is with respect to
2023 Medicaid Penalty Divisor
As I have written about frequently in this blog, many of the Medicaid and VA benefit numbers are updated annually. Most are adjusted in lock step with Social Security’s cost of living adjustment (COLA). With inflation being as high as it has been in many years, the COLA for 2023 was also
The Imperfect Medicaid Approval – Part 2
In my post last week, I wrote about a trend we are seeing with our Medicaid applications - with every approval we get there almost always is something incorrect about the decision. Last week I told you that some of the mistakes can be easily corrected. Others, however, require that we file
The Imperfect Medicaid Approval -Part 1
In this week’s blog post I return to the topic of Medicaid. As I often tell people these days, Medicaid application are more challenging than they have ever been. But even after we get our cases approved, rarely is there an instance in which the approval is a perfect one. There almost
Proposed Financial Elder Abuse Legislation – Part 3
The subject of my last two posts has been a proposed piece of legislation introduced by 2 New Jersey legislators in response to a couple of cases reported upon in the media in which seniors were moved into long term care facilities and their asset taken from them by individuals
Signing an Admissions Agreement on Behalf of Another (Part 4)
In last week’s post I distinguished the terms “personal guarantor” and “responsible party” which are found in most long term care facility contracts. This week I’ll explain why they are so important, in light of the increasing difficulty in obtaining Medicaid benefits under the government programs that cover long term care
Signing an Admissions Agreement on Behalf of Another (Part 3)
In my blog post last week, I was discussing the terms “responsible party” and “personal guarantor” which are found in most nursing home and assisted living facility admissions agreements. They do not mean the same thing and we must always look to the definitions set out in the specific agreement being
Signing an Admissions Agreement on Behalf of Another (Part 1)
As I have written about often recently, the State has raised the bar significantly in terms of what an applicant needs to produce and explain in order to qualify for Medicaid. The level of increased scrutiny leads to many more failed applications and reapplications than even a few years
Nursing Home or Assisted Living (Part 2)
In my blog post last week I began to highlight the differences between nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Understanding the differences is especially important when one has limited assets and Medicaid benefits will be needed to pay for care at some point. The private pay rate for care for both