If you’ve heard anything about Medicaid, you’ve probably heard about the lookback period. In Iowa, the lookback period is the period of time starting with the day you apply for Medicaid and extending back through time for sixty months. We break that definition down after the jump. [Read More]
If you can’t prove you didn’t make a transfer to get on Medicaid, that transfer becomes a disallowed transfer. And that’s bad because a disallowed transfer means a penalty period will be imposed, delaying the time you are allowed to receive Medicaid coverage for the nursing home. The real question becomes: how do you calculate the penalty period? [Read More]
The length of the penalty period depends on the value of the assets transferred.
Seems obvious, right? In daily life, a transfer happens when property changes hands. You can transfer money between bank accounts or transfer germs between school children. In grilling and smoking, “transfer” means removing food from the grill or smoker. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple in the Medicaid world. [Read More]
Iowa Medicaid – sometimes called Title XIX (Title 19) – is a mashup of federal statutes and regulations, state-specific rule tweaks, and both formal and informal agency policies. The system itself is intricate enough, but then the individual case workers who process Medicaid applications don’t always apply the rules in the same way. It’s virtually impossible to navigate the maze without a guide. [Read More]
We are about to experience – some say we’re already experiencing – the biggest workforce shift from full time work to retirement in United States history. If you’re a Baby Boomer, you are a part of this generational transition. If you can see retirement on the horizon, then I have a warning for you: there’s a train following close behind retirement that you absolutely must plan for: nursing home care. [Read More]
One of the many documents an elder law and long-term care planning attorney in the Northwest Iowa area will encourage clients to put together is a living will. These documents have been considered incredibly important in both the legal and medical fields for 40+ years. A living will provides you with the opportunity to make your medical wishes known should you become incapacitated and unable to make decisions at the time. [Read More]
If you’re dealing with a nursing home, it will quickly become clear that the options for paying the care bill are dizzying. Paying out of pocket is cost prohibitive. Long-term care insurance is probably not workable. For many, that leaves Medicaid, but those rules are spread over hundreds of pages of federal and state statutes, regulations, and policy manuals. What you need is an oasis from the stress, not the exponentially increasing stress that comes from trying to make sense of all those rules. Don’t despair. You can achieve calm in this whirlwind. Follow these five steps and you’ll soon find that the zen of nursing home planning is easily reached. [Read More]
At an average of $180 per day in Iowa, paying $60,000 per year for a nursing home is not only likely, but it’s almost guaranteed. Staring that number in the face can make your stress level rise pretty quickly. So, you ask the nursing home social worker for information about applying for Medicaid. Unfortunately, nursing homes are being put in a position where they simply can’t talk to their patients about Medicaid eligibility planning. As a result, there are a few things the nursing home social worker may not tell you. [Read More]
Nursing homes are expensive. Whether you’re looking at long-term care insurance well in advance of needing care or you’re visiting with the nursing home admissions office to move your elderly mother into her room tomorrow, you know that the out-of-pocket costs for nursing home care can quickly reach five digits. Paying $60,000 per year is not only likely, but it’s almost guaranteed. In the face of numbers like this, it’s only natural to despair. But you don’t have to feel lost as you face down the looming nursing home crisis. [Read More]
one area that often gets overlooked in the estate planning process is long-term care insurance. People have a variety of reasons for overlooking long-term care insurance, and, while some or all of these justifications may be true, it may still make sense to at least discuss the risks with your Northwest Iowa trust and estates attorney. [Read More]
