Medicaid Planning
Medicaid Planning involves transferring assets from countable or unprotected categories to non-countable or protected categories in order to legally transfer responsibility for a patient’s care costs to the government.
About Medicaid Planning
Medicaid Planning involves the transfer of assets from countable or unprotected categories to non-countable or protected categories to shift the cost of a patient’s care onto the government. The goal is to ensure that assets are transferred to heirs and to protect a healthy spouse while avoiding or limiting Estate Recovery (that is, when the state tries to recover those costs from the individual’s estate after they pass away).
There are two main Medicaid programs:
This program provides a variety of services to individuals with chronic and disabling conditions, such as care for health and daily living. Planning for LTC is not limited to poor or low-income individuals, and most people need to plan to qualify for benefits. There are two categories of LTC planning: pre-planning, which is for future long-term care needs, and crisis planning, which is when someone needs LTC services immediately.
This program is health insurance for low-income and medically needy individuals. To qualify, income and assets must be below certain thresholds, and the person must meet certain Social Security definitions. Planning in this area usually involves moving excess resources into non-countable positions. The RCFS Supplemental Needs Pooled Trust is a common tool that, under appropriate circumstances, can be created and used to protect those excess resources. Additionally, most Medicaid programs offer Waiver or Home and Community Based Services (HCBS) to help people stay in their homes and communities. These programs may include extra benefits like home modifications, and people can apply for them at the same time as their initial Medicaid application.
How RCFS Helps
RCFS can help with applying for Medicaid and Medical Assistance can be daunting and confusing, and RCFS can hlpe you with the application process. Our Medicaid planning, though, goes beyond gaining eligibility.
Here are some of the areas of the Medicaid planning process where we can help:
- Retitling of assets transferred to the Community Spouse
- Medicaid LTC Pre-planning for Community Spouse
- Annual Redeterminations
- Review of all notifications and communications from the Assistance office
- Appeals relating to patient liability amounts which also includes the spousal allowance and other deductions
- Reporting and spend down of “After Acquired” assets
- POA’s and Wills should be reviewed and updated if needed. Named Agents should be familiar with the components of the Medicaid plan should there be a need for them to act.
- Heir advocacy post death
Medicaid Planning
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