Will Medicaid get all of my Mom's assets, she is in a nursing home?

Rent and ut are necessary so probably not be penalized for that. But I am just a normal person, not knowing for sure.

Put the $600 back unless it was in her PNA account. Once you go into a nursing home, you fork over her entire SS check as part of the agreement.

Pam, how does that work if a person goes into a nursing home, on Medicaid, but has some final expenses at the home they were living in? How would those expenses be paid since the nursing home would get all but the PNA? Which would not be enough to cover much. I think a previous poster described a situation where a lease would be broken and asked who or how would this money be covered?

Unfortunately, once they are on Medicaid with a PNA, there is no money to pay utilities, mortgages, taxes, credit cards or car repairs. The landlord keeps the deposit and rents to someone else. No money for a storage unit. No money for a mover. Everything goes to default and if they sue, there is nothing to get. This has resulted in thousands of homes being abandoned and as baby boomers age, it gets worse.

What is a PNA? She has a supplemental ins, through AARP that she has been paying $200 monthly for a long time. Does she even need Medicaid with this additional coverage and would this alleviate some restrictions on her personal checking acct? I simply do not have the money to repay the rent and utilities that I took out of her checking acct to cover HER expenses. I have receipts to validate everything that I have spent

Apla - I'm going to dial back your ? a bit……ok so mom is in a NH and this is recent but mom still has an apartment which has some items of hers and utilities still going and rent due, this is the situation, right?

How was mom admitted to the NH? Did mom go into NH after a hospital stay so she is in the NH paid for by Medicare's post-hospital rehab benefit? IF so, did anyone explain how Medicare pays for NH and the time limitations? At minimum, Medicare will pay 100% for 21 days and then up to 100 days at 80% if they are progressing. The 20% will need to be paid by a secondary insurance or from savings or family pays. I hope the AARP is a secondary policy that covers this - you need to find out exactly what the policy is about. $ 200 mo sounds like health insurance supplemental rates. But could be a bought later in life term life insurance. FOr the sort time period that mom is in the NH on Medicare, she can keep her monthly income but you may not want to spend it on her old apt stuff but instead use it toward things she needs for living in the NH or for a prepaid funeral policy - this will be the last weeks of mom ever having monthly income she can spend freely ever again. Realize Medicare will not ever pay for long term care - it is not designed to cover long term care needs which is what being in a NH is. medicare will cover only short term rehabilitation stay.

Only Medicaid, LTC insurance or private pay will cover long term stay at a NH; for Medicaid mom will need to qualify both medically and financially and with supporting documentation.

OR did mom enter as a Medicaid Pending admission and you/mom or someone else in the family is doing or did the Medicaid application. IF it's this way, the NH has to get a co-pay from the resident starting day 1 of Medicaid Pending status. This is also called the "SOC" share of costs and it's all of mom's monthly income less a small amount (ranges from $ 35 - 90 a month) that is their personal needs allowance - the PNA that Pam mentioned. Like for TX, the PNA is $ 60. Most NH will press upon family that the residents entire monthly income goes 100% to NH then the PNA is placed in a residents trust account at the NH. But it does not have to be done this way & someone can write checks from mom's account to pay the SOC and let the PNA build each month. My mom continued to have her checking account with income direct deposit and I wrote the NH a check each mo for the SOC; now you may have to sign off an agreement on all this, perhaps with a hefty late fee for not paying by the 10th of the mo and you will need to be a big personality to not give into NH request. Most families just let the parents checks go to the NH as just simpler.

Reread what Pam wrote about Medicaid - there will be no $…..

Now if you were living with mom or were dependent on mom's income in any way (which often caregivers are), mom going into a NH and onto Medicaid puts you totally at risk. Medicaid doesn't care if mom has CC debt, taxes, rent, insurance due or monthly insurance payment to AARP or whatever else. Medicaid doesn't care that mom paid the rent for the apt that you both live at. Medicaid requires the SOC and mom will only have the small PNA from here on out. The $ 600 that you took from her account will pose issues for Medicaid as the check it sounds like was written to you and cashed by you. It looks like "gifting". You can likely explain this 1 check with the receipts but you cannot do this anymore. Usually if there is a gifting issue, the application will have a more intensive review and ask for up to 5 years of all financials. For my mom, I had to get a bank officer to do a notarized letter as to the disposition on all my mom's accounts, CD's T bills, etc as to the date, amount and where the funds went on each - all went into her main drawing checking account, so no issues; but if 1 CD had been cashed out, it would have totally been a transfer penalty. So think if there could be other checks that are a problem in the past 5 years - hopefully not. Again reread what Pam wrote, there will be no $……

Whatever you do, be careful in anything you sign. If you signed anything on the apt or utilities, they will come after you since mom cannot pay. You have to sign everything as "Jane Smith Jones in her limited capacity as DPOA for Mary Smith".

Also read the articles on this site as to how Medicare & Medicaid are different. You need to understand what they do and more importantly do NOT do. Good luck.

Thank you for the many helpful posts...can anyone comment about Medicare advantage plans, i.e. different length of coverage or qualifications...Dad has Anthem BCBS.

What happens after the 100 days and my mom has over $2000 and does not qualify for Medicaid? I am not financially able to pay for her care, what happens then?

aplakrit, your best bet would be to make the NH representative payee so the SS check goes directly to them. Take yourself completely out of the financial end of this before you get in deep trouble. If you are POA, resign and let Social Services step in and manage her funds. Better for her to be a Ward of the State than to be tossed out of there.