Medicaid Planning

The cost of nursing home care can quickly deplete your assets. In order to protect your assets and pay for your long-term care, you will need to go through Medicaid planning. Medicaid will pay for nursing home care when you need it, if you qualify. To qualify, you must be 65 years or older, disabled, or blind. One of the biggest hurdles to qualify is your income and the amount of assets you have. Your total assets and income can not exceed the State prescribed amount.

A successful Medicaid plan will allow you to qualify for Medicaid while protecting your assets. This is planning for the financial future of you and your loved ones. Do not wait until you need nursing home care. Being proactive and putting a Medicaid plan in place is the best way to ensure you will have the long term care you need without sustaining irreparable damage to your finances.

Medicaid is a valuable government benefit. The Law office of Thomas J. Hansen is here for all of your Medicaid planning needs. Attorney Thomas J. Hansen prides himself on supporting his client to the fullest extent. He will walk you through the Medicaid planning process and develop a plan that will secure your Medicaid benefits while protecting your assets.

How Does Medicaid Planning Work?

As previously stated, in order to qualify for Medicaid, your income level and total amount of assets must fall below a specified amount. There are two types of assets that will be looked at when evaluating your Medicaid eligibility: exempt (assets that do not count) and non-exempt (assets that count.)

The Medicaid applicant’s non- exempt assets cannot be more than $2,000 (the Individual Resource Allowance.)

If the Medicaid applicant is married, the applicant’s spouse’s non-exempt assets cannot be more than $109,560 (the Community Spouse Resource Allowance.)

For both spouses to qualify for Medicaid, their non-exempt assets cannot be more than $3,000  (Resource Allowance for a Couple.)

If you are thinking that you could simply give away your assets in order to meet the financial requirements for Medicaid, you need to become aware of the Look Back Period Illinois has in place to prevent people from doing just that.

Illinois has a 5 year look back period. This means that, when you apply for Medicaid, asset transfers in the 5 years preceding the application will be examined. If a transfer is labeled as uncompensated, it will create a penalty. The penalty comes in the form of a dollar amount, the transferred asset’s worth, of care that the state will not pay for once you have applied for Medicaid. This means you lost the money that the asset was worth.

There are two types of ways to plan for transferring assets. Pre-planning is ideal and has the potential of getting your assets off the table for Medicaid purposes. If you transfer the assets and do not need nursing home care for the next five years, then you are home free.

The other type of Medicaid planning is crisis planning. It is not the ideal way to Medicaid plan, but in some cases it is necessary. If you need care right away and have not gone through Medicaid planning, things may still be arranged in a way that you are eligible for care. Many people just assume that they are not Medicaid eligible, but there may be a way. A skilled and knowledgeable Medicaid planning attorney might be able to look at your exempt assets and exempt asset transfers to see if you are Medicaid eligible or could become so. Do not lose hope!

A Medicaid Planning Attorney You Can Depend On

For Medicaid pre-planning or Medicaid crisis planning, Attorney Thomas J. Hansen is here for you. Attorney Hansen understands the importance of Medicaid planning and that is why he will thoroughly examine your individual circumstances to make sure you have a successful Medicaid plan in place. Get valuable Medicaid benefits without risking your personal assets. Contact the Law Office of Thomas J. Hansen today.