Medicaid Planning

Medicaid and Medicare are the two largest publicly funded health programs in the country with different missions that often overlap. Medicare provides health coverage to seniors and some individuals with disabilities. Medicaid covers adults and children who cannot afford insurance, or who have health care costs they cannot afford. Often, an individual will be eligible for coverage through both programs.…

Medicaid and Medicare are the two largest publicly funded health programs in the country, with different missions that often overlap. Medicare provides health coverage to seniors and some individuals with disabilities. Medicaid covers adults and children who cannot afford insurance, or who have health care costs they cannot afford. Often, an individual will be eligible for coverage through both programs.…

Medicaid eligibility rules are confusing, hard to understand and can seem completely random!  Each Medicaid program has different eligibility requirements, and below we’ll break down three common questions asked about rules and resources.  Resources are things that you own, including money, personal property and real estate.  Your monthly income is not a resource and Medicaid has a different set of…

Everyone has heard of Medicaid. It is one of the largest health insurance providers in Ohio and covers individuals and families who don’t have insurance and can’t afford to buy it. More than 2.9 million people in Ohio get health insurance through Medicaid every year. But did you know that Medicaid is much more than health insurance for the poor?…

When you become financially eligible for Medicaid, the next step is to apply and it’s generally a straightforward process.  You fill out an application with basic information about yourself and submit it to the county Job and Family Services (JFS) where you currently reside. However, the next steps are crucial and can become overwhelming. Be prepared to send JFS current…

Often, when working with clients on getting a plan in place for Mom, applying for Medicaid and getting her settled in the nursing home, I am asked, “Now what do I do to plan for and protect Dad?” We’ve preserved the home and maximized income and resources for him, but now what?  Is he protected if anything else may happen?…

I work collaboratively with dozens of nursing home and assisted living facilities when clients need to apply for Medicaid. I find facility staff to be some of the most Medicaid-knowledgeable people in the world, but I’ve also seen too many cases where families relied on the facility to guide them through a Medicaid application, and big problems arose. Applying for…

It’s common for me to speak with families about Medicaid planning, and often, the idea of such planning is immediately dismissed as unnecessary because Mom and Dad “only” have $50,000 in savings, a house and a car. The family assumes that since there is only $50,000 in liquid assets to spend down, they need to spend that as quickly as…

It’s almost common knowledge that Medicaid imposes a “five-year lookback” to identify gifts made by a Medicaid applicant.  In most circumstances, if an individual who is applying for Medicaid has given away their assets within the last five years, Medicaid will penalize that individual, even if they are currently out of funds, by not paying the nursing home for a…