Medicaid Planning Services.

I used a CELA level attorney for my DH aunt. I agree with Robert, best money spent, but what Igloo says is also true that you are not paying for leg work, that is still on you.
And some cases are more complicated than others. Some families are more complicated and sometimes you just don’t want to hear (mostly imagined on my part ) another word from anyone about what you did or didn’t do. Sometimes there is a crisis and that was more or less my situation.

You are paying for knowledge, experience and the assurance that you are not alone. So choose wisely. I would NEVER trust a service that didn’t have the right attorney for me to meet with. I want to meet with the person who is getting the big bucks not the paralegal, if they are even that. However, that’s in my area. Yours may have great Medicaid planners, who no doubt, have more knowledge than many attorneys who aren’t experienced in elder law.

I could do this easily on my own to day, if the person needing help had the same situation as my DH aunt and I had no emotions running rampant.

I did do it on my own the third time. The second time I still had some questions but didn’t have to pay to get the answers. Do know that in some states it is an annual event and the application is different for each state.

My problem was I was dealing with a home flood, despair over having to take the step and many other emotions having to do with extended family. So, it isn’t always that you couldn’t DIY it’s more that this is one very important thing that a professional can be paid to do that you can take off your plate.

Plus there were things not common knowledge that I would not have known to do, like keeping her Original Medicare, parts A&B, medigap, plan F and Part D and it would be paid from her Social Security. Like how to manage her IRA. Hers was a simple estate but those decisions made a difference over the next three years.

And there was the fact that I had used the same attorney for other things for other family members for several years. Plus I had utilized all the services paid for by her insurance like home health and hospice, so I didn’t have to have help proving DH aunt would pass the health portion of Medicaid requirements. I had been her DPOA for almost 20 yrs by the time she passed. I felt like I needed the bed next to her by the time I was going through this and it wasn’t because of her, she was a bright spot in my life always.

And then there is the “new job” of dealing with the facility and the rapid turnover. Again, different experiences abound. I’m not trying to negate anyone else’s experience. Indeed I’m grateful there are good ones out there. Gives us hope.

You or whomever is your elder’s POA is still going to have to take the time to get all the myriad of documents that your State LTC Medicaid program will absolutely require to be submitted.

That Medicaid planning services group ON THEIR OWN cannot and will not go over to Dads/Moms place and go thru years of paperwork; they cannot go to the various banks and get years of bank statements; find years of CD info; find the status on the folks safe deposit boxes; they cannot get years of moms health charts to show she is “at need” sufficiently to now be requiring skilled nursing care*; they cannot go down to the local SSA office to get any SSA documents that LTC Medicaid requires; ditto for any pensions or other retirement income your mom or you dad may have.

Finding all the paperwork is on whomever is the POA. That planning group then takes all this and does the filing or does the spend down to enable the elder to financially show themselves to be “at need” for LTC Medicaid. But it’s on you to get all - ALL - the info to them.

Either the States LTC Medicaid website or the NH you are looking at placing him/her into should have a list of the items required to be submitted for the application. That planning group isn’t going to do this as they legally are not her guardian or her POA. Your going to have to do whatever to get the PW on that list.

imo what these groups best do is work with elders who actually still have enough a$$et$ that can be placed into financial instruments- like annuities, or burial trusts, or other legit asset shifting- to get the elders qualified and impoverished sufficiently for whatever maximums LTC Medicaid has in your State. If your parent is already poor or have very little assets, they -imo- realistically don’t have $$$ for planning. That ship has sailed.

Now if this is a couples situation, where 1 is more than ready to go into a SNF and the other is healthy and fully able to stay living in their home, so they are 100% can be considered a “community spouse” by LTC Medicaid, that situation imo absolutely needs an elder law attorney (CELA level) to work with as the segregation of assets is fairly complex for couples in the NH/nonNH situation. It’s not a DIY, imo.

If this “planning group” does not have CELA elder law attorneys, personally, I would instead find an attorney who is to work with your elder and you to do whatever needed.

*Also please pls pls make sure that your parent absolutely shows to be “at need for skilled nursing care” in their health charts. LTC Medicaid requires them to be BOTH medically “at need” AND financially “at need”. Family gets all wadded on the financial side but that medical side is equally as important. If they clearly cannot show skilled need, then they will likely be viewed by Medicaid as ok for placement in an Assisted Living facility. Many States LTC Medicaid programs do not include AL placement. For States that do, it is on a waiver system, which tends to mean there will be a waiting list and there will be a more limited # of facilities. If your elder could be not quite needing skilled just yet, please pls find out precisely what the State funding for AL situation is.

I used a local elder law attorney who was very knowledgeable of the Medicaid process for our state. He handled everything from resource planning to the final Medicaid approval. Best money I have spent in years. I could never have done it on my own.