If you are expecting Medicare to pay for your aging parent's long term care needs think again. Medicare does not pay for a nursing home or skilled nursing facility.
Will Medicare Pay for My Aging Parents Long Term Care Needs
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Are you wondering if Medicare will pay for a nursing home for your parents? Watch this video.
Good post. Medicare never paid for Assisted Living, Senior Care or Home Care. There are some short 1-2 month loop holes social workers in hospitals use to suggest Assisted Living or Home Care is covered which helps you move out of the hospital. In the end Assisted Living, Home Care and Senior Care are private pay. EXCEPT IF YOU ARE REALLY POOR AND GET MEDICAID! Medicaid pays for 3-4 hrs of home care a day MAXIMUM. Or they pay for nursing home. In rare cases Medicaid like programs pay for a group home. Watch out for MEDICAID continuing to reduce what they pay for which is scary. Those people AND FAMILIES WHO HAVE PARENTS WHICH IS A LOT will have very difficult social decisions to make in how to care for their parents. DrShawnMcGivney
You are right Dr. Shawn. These decisions are hard enough for those who have the funds for private pay and challenging for those who do not.
If you are thinking of hiding money in a trust so you can qualify for medicaid I suggest that you spend some time volunteering at a medicaid nursing facility.
True but your party line needs more clarification. In the Theoretical Medicaid only or Medicaid plus the cash Lawyer suggested plan YOU GIVE AWAY your money. That only works in theory !!! That is our big concern in all health care. If you do not have relationships with adequate pay, social respect, and continuity of care you should lower your expectations of what you will get. I do not suggest you give your money away in general. I do suggest you give reasonable pay to those who do the work and establish some social guidelines for long term pay so that when the funds run out the care team has a plan for that. Indeed, if you pay a care giver well or fairly they might lower the fees after you have been fair with them for a few years. Continuity of care and respect have many in-kind benefits. Of course if that is the family then it is easy. But when the family want to take the money and suggest Medicaid planning I always advise one looks twice at that suggestion. This is way to complicated to go into and really depends on who your care team is! That Continuity of Care, Relationships, People provide the services look at the individuals who do the work and wheter they are likely to be willing and able to do the work for the long haul. If it is your family who is letting you live in, modified the house for your needs, great pay the ones who do the direct work. Offer that pay to the ones who “can’t or wont do it. Then they had there chance. But respect those who are doing the work, listening, providing the care a mother or wife provides to her kids. Only when we respect the caregivers ( hired and family based) and the high social duty and respect that care including doctors care deserves can we hope to get caring with the physical care.
When my mother needs full care instead of assisted living, I do want to be able to have Medicaid. I don’t know how to go about checking it out, but it is time to learn. Private pay is expensive. Money goes very quickly. It has been two years in assisted care.
Sherri- I understand what you are saying however I would suggest that you look at a medicaid facility first and talk to families who have a parent on medicaid. I have several friends whose parent is on medicaid and they have to be at the nursing home every day to make sure she is taken care of. The quality of care unfortunately is not there. There is usually one nurse to every 15 patients ( you are lucky if your parent sees her/him) and one caregiver to every 8 to 10 residents. For those needing a higher level of care this is just not adequate.
Personal Care Homes however offer a great solution to give round the clock care with a better caregiver to resident ratio ( usually about 3 or 4 to one) at a less expensive rate than most assisted living, memory care or nursing homes.
I am not sure what you are paying now for assisted but I would be happy to help you explore options.
What this video says is true, Medicare doesn’t cover the core of long term care. But it’s just sad that a lot of people rely on this government program because they think this can provide them the ltc coverage they need. I hope this video will serve as an eye-opener to those who don’t give importance to long term care. All I can say is this, without private insurance you’ll either become a burden to your family or you’ll end up exhausting all of your retirement savings.
I am just starting with what to do my father has care, they come to the house, VA pays for that. Now my Mom is almost to the point of full time care, moving in out of the question, my Mom loves me but dont like me, how to pay for her care. Iam retired and live down the road from them.. i been watching your talks, they are helpful . but still where does the cash come from? maybe that lottery tickets has that winning number..
Bill, I feel your pain. Long term care is not cheap. VA benefits help if you qualify ( spouses can get aid and attendance benefit also) a life insurance policy can be converted to help pay and of course if you have a long term care policy that helps. I wish I had a magic want to fix this problem. Going forward we caregivers need to take really good care of ourselves, eat right, exercise, etc or else we will continue this cycle for generations to come. Aging doesn’t have to mean disability.