Richard M. Barron
attorney at law
Helping your loved one
Get the nursing home
care they deserve,
while legally protecting
your Family's assets.
Sample Issue
The
Basics of Medicaid
"What You Can and Cannot Keep"
In order to understand
Medicaid qualification, you first need to know how Medicaid
treats your assets.
Basically, Medicaid breaks your assets down into two
separate categories. The first are those assets which are
exempt and
the second are those assets which are
non-exempt or
countable.
Exempt assets are those which Medicaid will not take into
account (at least for the time being). Generally the
following assets are exempt:
*The
Home, no matter its value. The home must be the
principal place of residence. The nursing home resident
may
be required to show some “intent to return home,” even if
this never actually takes place.
*Household and
personal belongings, such as furniture,
appliances, jewelry, and clothing.
*One Vehicle,
there may be some limitation on value.
*Prepaid
funeral plans and burial plots.
*Cash value life
insurance policies, as long as the face value of
these policies is countable.
Also, term life
insurance is exempt.
*Cash
not to exceed $2,000.00
*These
are basically the assets which Medicaid will ignore, at
least for now. Keep in mind, however, that the
estate
recovery unit may come back to recoup payments made to a
Medicaid Recipient after the death of the
recipient’s spouse
if they are married.
All other assets which are
not exempt
(i.e. the one listed earlier) are countable. This includes
checking accounts,
saving
accounts,mutual funds, bonds, IRA’s, pensions, second cars,
and so on. While there are some minor
exceptions to these rules, for the most part, all money and
property, as well as any item that can be valued and
turned
into cash is a countable asset, unless it is one of those
listed earlier as exempt.
While the Medicaid rules
themselves are complicated and
somewhat tricky, for a single person
it’s safe to say
you will qualify for Medicaid so
long as you have only exempt assets plus a small amount of
cash not to exceed
$2000.00, and your income is at or below
$1692.00
For a married couple the community spouse (i.e. the one not
needing nursing home care) can generally keep
one-half of
the assets up to a maximum of just under $95,000.00, and
income not exceeding $1692.00. Of
course, this does not mean
there are not things which can be done to protect assets or
reduce income beyond
these
levels. This issues of Elder & Disability Law Planning and
Strategies is designed to review the basics in a
way which a caseworker from the Texas
Department of Health and Human Services would likely do so.
In other issues we have or will cover ways that a single
person can often protect all of their assets.
Future issues will be dealing with
related topics covering additional Medicaid planning
strategies as well as
nursing home selection and care
issues.
In Service Training Available:
Richard M. Barron offers in-service training on topics
related to:
*Division of Assets
*Medicaid Planning
*Guardianship
*Powers of Attorney
*Other Elder Law Issues
Elder & Disability Law Planning & Strategies is published as
a service of Richard M. Barron, Attorney At Law, 209 East
Main Street,
Whitesboro, Texas 76273. This information is
for general information purposes only and does not
constitute legal advice. For
specific questions, contact us
or a qualified attorney.
Legal Disclaimer
This information
has been provided for informational purposes only. It
does not constitute legal advice.
The receipt of
this information does not establish an attorney-client
privilege.
Proper legal
advice can only be given upon consideration of all the
relevant facts and the law.
Therefore, you
should not act upon any information contained herein without
seeking
appropriate
legal counsel.
Richard M. Barron
Attorney at Law
209 E. Main Street
Whitesboro, Texas 76273
903-564-3663, 800-939-9093
Fax - 903-564-5562
e-mail -
[email protected]
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