 KB Times
Katten & Benson, Your Elder Care Law Specialists
January 2011 - Vol 4, Issue 1
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| Did You Know? |
- There were 10,666 older adults enrolled in Medicaid in Tarrant County in May 2010
Texas Health and Human Services
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| K & B Happening | |
You may remember that during the Fall Semester Dana Brown was a law student intern with us. I'm excited to let you know that she will be working here part time starting in January.
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Who Are "They"?
|  Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had a safe and happy holiday season. As I write this, I still have a house full of family, so things won't get back to normal at my house until later this week.
This seemed like a good time to talk again about Medicaid, not only because it's confusing, but because I am doing more and more Medicaid applications. The amount of misinformation about Medicaid that gets passed along always amazes me.
I recently met with a family I have been working with for a while to talk about Medicaid qualification. The husband asked if he was going to have to sell the house in order for his wife to qualify for Medicaid. I wanted to know why he was asking, because we had talked about this before, and he said, "Well, they told me I would have to sell the house." My question then was, "Who are they"? In this instance it was the nursing home social worker. I know this lady, and she is good and knowledgeable about lots of things, but apparently not with Medicaid. One home is always an exempt asset, and this couple only has one home. I had to remind him that he never has to sell the home, although at some point he might choose to sell the home.
We often hear stories like this from clients: They told me I would have to divorce my wife in order to qualify; they told me I would have to spend all my money to qualify; they told me....fill in the blank.
What I am here to tell you is that for the best advice about Medicaid qualification you should talk to an attorney who specializes in Medicaid qualification. Obviously we can do that, but if we are not convenient, we are always happy to refer you to someone closer to you. No two Medicaid applications are alike, and there are a lot of details to any application, so one person's experience is very likely not going to be your experience. They usually have good intentions, but they are not going to know all the details like your attorney will.
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Medicaid Changes?
| I recently had a colleague ask me if I knew of any proposed Medicaid changes that might result from the upcoming Legislative Session. She was concerned about a client and wanted to know if he should go ahead and go into the nursing home and apply for Medicaid.
At this point we have not heard of any proposed changes to Medicaid qualification for long term care. While Governor Perry has talked about opting out of Medicaid completely, I personally just don't see how that is viable option, but we'll see what happens as the Legislature begins it's work. We will definitely let you know if there are any changes.
One change that has happened just through a rule change has to do with property. As I mentioned above, a home (one) is not a countable asset for the purposes of qualification, but if a person owns more than one home, or other property besides the home, such as a lake lot, that other property is a countable asset. The recent rule change allows that property to be exempt as long as it is listed for sale, for the period of one year. This allows an applicant the chance to qualify while selling the property. Of course once the property is sold the applicant will likely no longer qualify for Medicaid, but then we can advise you on the best way to deal with the cash asset.
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Don't forget that we are always here and ready to help with your long term care planning needs.
Sincerely,
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Kim Olmedo, LCSW, CCSM, CSW-G
Elder Care Coordinator
Katten & Benson
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