Medicare may pay for the prescriptions that your mom needs. It will pay for issues arising from falls, such as a broken wrist. But, Medicare is not going to pay to have caregivers helping your mom each day. To stop your mom from wandering, someone needs to be with her 24/7. Medicare doesn’t pay for that professional home care aide. If your mom needs someone to cook her meals, clean her home, or drive her to stores and appointments, Medicare won’t help. How can a Medicaid Planning Attorney help?
Your mom will need to pay out of pocket for that type of Alzheimer’s care. It is expensive. Genworth placed the cost of adult day programs at just under $80 in 2021. A nursing home cost upwards of $300 per day, home health care and home care aids were over $160, and assisted living was around $150 per day.
This is why many families feel the only option is to quit jobs and care for a parent on their own. They forgo building retirement savings and may even give up health insurance and other benefits that come from working full-time. What do you do if that’s not a viable option?
Does She Have Long-Term Care Insurance?
Go through your mom’s files and see if she ever paid for long-term care insurance. If she did, that would cover some of the cost of her long-term care. It may not cover all of it though, and there are rules you have to follow.
Long-term care insurance usually has a list of home care aides or assisted living communities you have to use. If the organization or aide isn’t on that list, they won’t pay. There are also limits on how much the insurance plan will payout. Your mom may still pay for some of her care out of pocket.
Work With An Elder Law Attorney
One of the biggest mistakes families make is thinking that health insurance or Medicare will cover the cost of Alzheimer’s care. That won’t happen. If your mom needs specialized Alzheimer’s care, she’s going to pay out of pocket if she didn’t buy long-term care insurance years ago.
Talk to an elder law attorney about the steps to take to prepare for her future. People with Alzheimer’s can live up to 20 years or even longer. As the disease progresses, her care needs may advance and more money is spent. It’s likely that your mom will become bankrupt. At that point, Medi-Cal helps pay for Alzheimer’s care.
Make an appointment with an elder law attorney that specializes in Medi-Cal planning. A Medi-Cal attorney can answer your questions and help you better understand how the spend-down period works. Call today to arrange a consultation.
The Law Office of James Dolenga offers Elder Law & Medi-Cal Planning, Estate Planning, SSDI, SSI, and a Medicaid Planning Attorney in Anaheim, CA. Call today for your legal consultation. (866) 772-5299
Sources:
https://www.genworth.com/aging-and-you/finances/cost-of-care.html
Attorney Dolenga has successfully guided thousands of severely disabled clients in presenting their claims before the Social Security Administrations administrative law judges and numerous Federal district courts across the country. As a result of these efforts, his clients have been provided with the resources needed to support themselves and their families.
Through this work, Attorney Dolenga also sees first-hand the catastrophic effects a severe, and often sudden, medical diagnosis or death can have on a family emotionally and financially. This allows him to fully understand how critically important advanced planning can be. Whether in drafting a simple will to protect an individual or a couple and their home and bank account or drafting more complex documents, he understands how important this planning can be to the lives of his clients and their families.
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