A Medicaid professional consultant helping an elderly woman to protect her assets and money from the nursing home spend down.

Florida Medicaid Financial Planning for Home Care & Nursing Homes

To prevent "lazy dollar" management prudent Medicaid planning should be implemented

Even if Florida Medicaid is not considered there are 4 areas that need to be considered: Health, Finance, Tax, Legal Issues

When seniors get sick, often a medical provider will inform a family member that their loved one is not improving or coming home soon! Enter the pain, anxiety and crisis planning atmosphere and details that follow. Will Mom or dad have to go into a nursing home? Will Florida Medicaid cover it? Everyone wants to avoid Florida Medicaid and the nursing home, staying in their own home and comfortable surroundings we have all enjoyed forever. Regrettably it is no longer our choice to make.

Regardless if Florida Medicaid is considered or not at this time; at this point there are four areas that need to be considered carefully: Health, Finance, Tax, and Legal issues. All of these areas have an effect on each other in your time of illness and need. For the most part, most seniors have avoided financial, tax and legal problems all of their lives. Along comes a health crisis and problems line up one after another. Health deals with Medicare, Medicaid, VA benefits (Housebound) and drug plans. Finance concerns your current and future income, growth, positions of assets, IRAs, LTC plans. Tax refers to getting your tax return completed correctly, thoroughly, taking all deductions, and avoiding events that may trigger unnecessary or additional taxes. Legal relates to having all of your legal documents current, in place, beneficiaries reviewed, liabilities discussed. An experienced team of attorneys, CPAs and EAs are needed to assist you in these areas that understand how each choice will affect the overall picture.

Now with an unfortunate illness your family's life is upside down with one problem after another. Life is to be lived to the fullest and enjoyed with family. Once the illness or getting older challenges hits us, our day to day life is uncertain. Each can bring about a new disappointment, setback or unwanted blow going forward. There may never be progress rather "I hope I don't get any worse." It is essential to have a plan and substantial resources identified and available when needed. Staying ahead of the game is essential to your long term success.

Lazy Dollars is Poor Medicaid Pre-Planning

There are cash accounts, put it in and take it out accounts and lastly put it in and keep it accounts. Many seniors have what we call "lazy dollars" that will eventually go to the kids. It is important to protect all of your assets with preplanning. This is usually discovered and resolved in an annual review. We are all creatures of habits- some of which are dire. Lazy dollars tend to remain lazy! The reality is that lazy dollars are not positioned in the best location for you or your family. Let me provide an example of how lazy dollars will not provide a benefit to you:

Example of Good Florida Medicaid Pre-Planning

You have $100,000 in a safe CD earning about 1% (if you are lucky) each year compared to another safe account earning 3.5%. We do not know where interest rates will be over the next 5-10 years with this economy. Over the next 7 years the difference between the two will be about $15,000 for the higher paying account. Now what does that mean to you regarding your healthcare? At $25 per hour the additional $15,000 will now pay for 600 hours of home care. Remember the most important plan is for folks to stay in your home, in your own bed, your favorite chair, with your own TV, with your loved ones and even your pet dog. These 600 hours of care at 20 hours a week will now pay for a home health visit to your house for 30 weeks! This is about 7 – 8 months. Do you begin to see how simple yet valuable this really is? Usually we get a call from a family member telling us that they have now spent $15,000- $20,000 and they see no end in sight. NOW, they want to talk to us about a plan and how to change the direction of things. NOW they are really concerned about the potentially dangerous runaway money pit of homecare expenses. They have not yet entered the Nursing Home or Florida Medicaid spend-down conversation. Florida Medicaid qualification is for another article but still important.

Please do not let lazy dollars, no preplanning or uninformed decisions become a problem at your greatest time of need. Our service is to provide information, direction, explanation, clarity, solutions, summary and a realistic practical plan to meet your objectives with current laws and potentially current Florida Medicaid rules. This usually means for you to stay in your home, enjoy your life and have the peace of mind knowing that you now have additional resources waiting in reserves for your time of need. It's your money and your health! You earned it.
by Dave Henderson

Please contact Medicaid Consultants toll-free at 1 (877) 21-Medicaid or 1 (877) 216-3342.