Long Island Medicaid planning attorneys can help you to create a comprehensive plan that makes it possible for you to protect the assets you have worked hard to acquire over the course of your lifetime while getting Medicaid to pay for your nursing home care or other expensive health bills if you need costly care. Many seniors end up struggling to pay for the costs of essential healthcare services. Some are forced to spend their whole life savings and even sell assets they had hoped to pass down to their children. If you hope to avoid this fate, you need to work with an experienced attorney to put a Medicaid plan in place while you still have time to do so.
Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC can help. We provide assistance in determining if you need to make a Medicaid plan and, if so, we help you to identify the best course of action for ensuring you can get Medicaid to cover your care. We then provide assistance implementing your Medicaid plan and keeping it updated, as necessary, if your circumstances change. There are many reasons why it is important to create a Medicaid plan and you should give us a call to get personalized advice on your situation. You can also read on to find some key ways that Medicaid planning helps you to get essential care you may need as a senior.
Medicaid Can Pay for Some Services Medicare Does Not Cover
Despite common misconceptions, Medicare is not the comprehensive program that many people think it is. Medicare actually has some substantial coverage limitations, including many services that it does not pay anything for at all. In addition to excluding many common types of care, Medicare also imposes high coinsurance costs and requires seniors to pay premiums. All of the costs associated with getting care can quickly add up, even if you have medical care. In fact, Employee Benefit Research Institute conducted a study and found that a senior couple who needed a lot of prescription drugs would need to have around $370,000 just to have a 90 percent chance of covering healthcare costs during retirement — even with both Medicare and a Medigap supplementary policy.
Because most people do not have anywhere near enough savings to pay for very costly medical care as a senior, being able to qualify for Medicaid can be important. Medicaid can help you to pick up some costs that Medicare won’t cover and could save you from having to spend your entire savings on medical services.
Medicaid Can Cover the Costs of Skilled Nursing Home Care
The study by Employee Benefit Research Institute that found seniors could need up to $370,000 to have a chance of being able to cover care costs did not take into account one of the most expensive types of care that seniors may end up needing to pay for: nursing home care. Many seniors end up spending at least some time in a nursing home or needing home healthcare services. Unfortunately, Medicare won’t pay anything for nursing home care or home care services except in very limited circumstances where you qualify for coverage for skilled nursing care and are able to get care in a skilled nursing facility. Outside of these circumstances, you are on your own to pay for the costs of a nursing home — which could total many thousands of dollars every single month.
Medicaid will pay for custodial care in a nursing home care, which is basic routine care most seniors need when they go into a care facility. Medicaid will also pick up the costs of long-term care at home if it becomes necessary. However, you can get this coverage only if you qualify for Medicaid.
Getting Help from Long Island Medicaid Planning Attorneys
Medicaid is one of the most important benefits that seniors may come to rely on as they get older and end up experiencing health issues that require costly care. Unfortunately, if you have too many assets, you won’t be able to qualify for means-tested Medicaid. Many seniors do have too many assets to get Medicaid to cover them because many seniors have worked their whole life to build a little nest egg to hand down to loved ones.
You could lose the chance to leave this legacy by being forced to impoverish yourself to pay for care until Medicaid kicks in to cover you — but you don’t have to if you work with Long Island Medicaid planning attorneys to create a Medicaid plan. Mark S. Eghrari & Associates, PLLC can help. To find out how, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at (631) 265-0599 or contact us online today.
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- How Do You Qualify for Medicaid? - March 7, 2019
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