» Medicaid Planning

ABLE Accounts – Saving for Future Qualified Disability Expenses

There is a relatively new planning technique in Florida that allows persons who were disabled before age 26 to save for future qualified disability expenses. These savings accounts are called ABLE Accounts. It all started in December 2014 when The Stephen Beck, Jr. Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act was enacted by Congress. The […]

Can I Keep My Pension if I Go On Medicaid?

Medicaid helps cover the costs of long-term care, nursing home costs and other medical expenses. However, Medicaid only provides coverage to people with limited income and limited countable assets. If you receive a pension, the amount may be too high for you to qualify for Medicaid to help get the cost of nursing home […]

What Assets Can I Keep When My Spouse Qualifies for Medicaid?

If your spouse requires long-term care in a skilled nursing facility, the costs can be significant. Nursing homes can cost nearly $100,000 per year and many retirees could quickly exhaust their entire life savings paying for the costs of nursing care. This is a big problem when one spouse needs to go into a nursing home […]

Do VA Benefits Pay for a Nursing Home?

The Department of Veterans Affairs provides benefits to eligible former military members. Eligible veterans can apply for VA health care services and receive subsidized or free care depending upon their years of service, whether they have a service-connected disability, and their income. If you qualify for veterans benefits and you need long-term care, it is […]

Estate Planning Advice: Should My Parents Give Me Their Home?

Long-term care can be very costly and it can quickly deplete a person’s life savings. Medicaid can help cover the costs of a nursing home, but only if the person going into care has limited resources. When someone owns a home, it is thus natural to be concerned about whether the home will be lost if […]

Can’t I Just Add My Child’s Name to the Title of my House to Avoid Losing my Home to Medicaid recovery?

Estate recovery is a process in which the government tries to recover funds paid out by Medicaid for long-term care costs or other medical expenses. Medicaid is a program designed to provide medical coverage for the poor, but it has become widely used by seniors to pay for nursing home costs. After a senior dies, […]

Florida Medicaid Planning: Can’t I Just Give My Assets Away and Qualify for Medicaid Benefits?

As you become older, you may incur significant medical expenses, even when you are covered by Medicare. Medicare, the insurance designed to cover all elderly Americans, provides some coverage but requires you to pay a percentage of expenses and may not offer full payment for things like assisted living or nursing home care. Fact is […]

Medicaid Cuts to Save State Money

The Florida Independent recently published an article by Ashley Lopez discussing the state’s efforts to cut costs by limiting Medicaid coverage: Kaiser Health News and USA Today report that Florida is among a slew of states that have been cutting costs by limiting hospital coverage in their Medicaid plans. Last week, an official for Florida’s […]

Non-Service Related Pensions for Veterans

Two benefits available to vets or their widows are the Improved Pension and the Aid and Attendance Program. Both programs require the vet to have served for 90 days of active service with at least one day of service during wartime with no dishonorable discharge. Vets who entered service after September 8, 1980, may have […]

Revitalization of Promissory Notes as a Medicaid Planning Tool

Recent implementation of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 has resulted in Medicaid policies that are just now being utilized by the Elder Law Bar as a new planning opportunity for asset preservation for families with loved ones seeking long term care. This change was set forth in the ESS manual in January 2010. However, […]

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