We were told that we needed to wait 7 months and then she would qualify for a provider or care giver for a couple of hours a day while she is alone. Is this true? and how long do we have wait to put her in a nursing home? We dont want the house to get taken away.
Who told you that she would be eligible for sevices in 7 months? What program is that?
Are you working with a qualified elder law attorney as you make these decisions?
If Grandmother is private pay she can enter a nursing home any time she meets the medical requirements. It is only if she wants financial assistance that she needs to meet the criteria of any program she applying to for aisstance. Medicaid, for example, has a 5-year "look back" period to evaluate what she has done with her assets. What she has done with assets during that period may effect her eligibility for assistance.
I hope that her children had good legal advice when they took ownership of her home.
As Jeanne said, MedicAID has a 5 year lookback on all financial transactions.
So if gran went into a NH today 7/2/12 then all her finances from August 2007 to now fall in the lookback period. In order to apply for MedicAID, you allow the state to access your records. When you apply for admission into a NH you have to provide 3 - 7 months of financial information and other documents for MedicAID.
Each state has a somewhat different list but is doing it under federal regulations.
Property transactions are recorded in order to be valid so it is just keystrokes away from finding out the status on property. Same for banking, SS and retirement. The state might not find out in the initial review of gran assets that a transfer occurred but more likely months down the line and after she has been living in the NH for a while. The state will send the NH and whomever is her responsible party a letter of NH ineligibility based on transfer penalty and you have 30 days to figure out how to private pay or she will be discharged. This is a total panic situation and you really don't want this to happen.
If her home was "sold" at FMV then the $ from the sale should be in her bank account and will need to be spent on her needs and her care. If gran gave the property to family, then the state can impose a "transfer penalty" which will make gran ineligible for a period of time to receive MedicAID. Transfer penalty is based on what your state has as it's NH reimbursement rate. For example, in TX it's about $ 148.00 a day and TX has a low rate. So if the house was worth 100K and was essentially given and transferred to a family member, that would make them ineligible with a transfer penalty of 675 days for TX. It somewhat more complicated than that as NH costs and medical cost vary so it could be less but still you are looking at a huge amount of private pay because of the transfer.
Medicaid rules determined by each state & are state specific even though it is a federal & state program. Medicaid is needs-based.You are expected to spend your assets first and foremost before the state will pay for your NH care. It is not designed for elders to turn over all their assets to a family member on Monday and then enter the NH on Tuesday and expect the state to pay for it. There are things you can do to reduce assets but these need to be done by someone qualified to do this that will pass your state's review. An certified elder law attorney who has a practice in the county where the property is would be best.
One thing that often happens is if they are discharged from the hospital to a rehab facility, is that the rehab facility is more of a true rehab place rather than a NH with a small rehab as a part of the overall NH, so long term care is not what the facility is about so no room for her. Understand?
Your mom was at home before she went into the hospital and then rehab, wasn't she? There is kinda a whole host of issues when they were all good at home and then need a NH. If they are living at home or in IL, and need to move to a NH, you will need to work with their MD to get the criteria in their medical history to show they need skilled nursing care. Just because they are old, or have dementia or incontinent, etc. is not enough. My mom went from IL to NH and bypassed going to AL. She was able to do this as she had a critical weight loss (more than 10% in 30 days), critical H & H and some other conditions. She was not hospitalized or sent to rehab just moved from IL to NH. Sometimes the MD will need to change their meds – like go from Exelon pill to Exelon patch (more “skill” to apply); or change a med to one that needs to be compounded daily which you can’t do at home. Or a chronic disease management plan done (this usually is coronary disease as the care could just be a daily baby aspirin). Each state has it’s own criteria for admission under Medicaid. They will be evaluated at the rehab facility or NH and often are denied because they don’t have enough “critical” conditions because there is no history when living @ home. You will have to work with NH and your parents MD’s to get whatever done to establish the need for NH if they are coming from being at home or IL. There is a whole medical appeals process in each state for this and separate from the financial appeals. For those still living at home without a huge disease history, becoming a patient of the MD who is the medical director of the NH is good as they will know how to create & write up the health history chart so that it passes Medicaid medical review. This is what I did and my mom basically got moved ahead of all others on the wait list as her doc was the medical director of the NH. Good luck and keep a sense of humor.