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Using the clients car? My mother has her own car with paid car insurance and assume responsibility for the car and the gas and any other expenses. Because of her lack of mobility it is unsafe for her to drive any longer. She needs for her care giver to be able to take her to appointments, etc in order for her to be able to still live in her apartment and maintain her independence. I have received mixed information on this topic and would like to find out the actual rule as per Medicaid.

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I would personally be worried...on many levels:
1. Dis tractability. Would you prefer that the Care Giver focus on driving or your family member?
2. How do you ensure that driving skills of the Care Giver? They may be amazing at providing care but not great drivers.
3. Does the Care Giver drop your family member by themselves at the door to the mall and leave them all alone while searching out a parking spot?
4. What about driving with a person with Dementia? My Dad actually reached for the gear shift while driving on the highway. Luckily I was able to grab his hand and hold it to distract him....but I shudder at what could have happened!
5. Why not leave the driving up to a professional and enjoy the ride together in the back seat?? Is it not about the care and companionship at the end of the day...and not about saving a buck on transportation?

Just my thoughts.
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I thank everyone for your input. Most of the replies were good reminders and things we have already taken care of. I wanted to hear others, feed back on their experience. IrishBoy, your comments were very unkind and thoughtless. Often times others do not know what each family is going thru. My mother has a son and two daughters that have done everything in their power to provide and take care of her needs for over 20 years. My brother is dealing with cancer in 4 places in his body and he has a very ill wife. My sister is very ill with auto-immune disorder and she can not be any where near sickness. And I currently live over 1000 miles from my mother. I return home for long periods of time to take care of business and her as needed. I would just like to encourage you not to throw stones unless you really know everything. I hope in pray you or anyone in your family never finds your self in this life cycle.
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I am a home health aide, if the client is eligible, the home health aide can drive their clients to appointments. The person I know is on medicaid and applied for the HCBS waiver, that is through medicaid, and she is eligible for someone to drive her, that home health aide gets paid mileage. This is in Florida.
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The nursing home my mims at pushes her table out in the hall and leaves her there to eat.I dont feel thsts clean place for her.
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We were told that mom was getting help because she was homebound. They said she could leave to go to the MD office, but if she was able to go shopping, her homebound status would immediately stop, no more visiting nurse. If she was able to go out to lunch, services would END.
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Sorry, why can't a family member step up to the plate and do the driving? I had one woman from an agency(that we paid out of pocket for) short term and she was not allowed by the agency to do any driving. She could go with you to a Dr. apt but that was it. Strictly in the house.

Don't rely on the govt. to take care of all your needs. If no family is available or family friend, than the family needs to hire someone. And you really don't want other people driving your mother's car. If they get into an accident the insurance company has an "out". Hire someone and compensate them for using their car.
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You might want to contact your mother's local agency on aging. As HersheyKisses mentioned, they usually will have a list of organizations that volunteer to drive or do errands for people.
Another idea: My mother lives in Fairfax County, Virginia and some of the local cab companies offer a discount booklet of rides for senior citizens. Many other cities offer similar services.
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Ask your state's Medicaid office. And to be sure, contact your mom's auto insurance agent--the last thing you want is an accident, and find out mom's insurance is not going to cover it (her ins is a Contract and if she doesn't follow the Terms of Contract they can refuse to pay a Claim!!!!).
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In some areas of the country there is an organization call Faith in Action. This is not a fly by night company, it is a group of organized volunteers that will pick up people, take them to the store, or respite, pick up prescriptions and provide your mom with trips to the doctors, etc. I use them often in Virginia and there is not charge for the services.
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I wonder if you are wondering if Medicaid will reimburse for the time the caregiver drives your mother to appts? If the paid caregiver works for an agency, ask them. They will have an answer. My experience with Medicaid in NC is that there are very few Medicaid services anymore that include providing transportation. We do have some transportation services for folks with Medicaid. That is all they do, transportation. Here is it through our county social services office.
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I have a friend who does home health with Medicaid patients. She is not allowed to drive her clients anywhere but I don't know if that is an agency rule or a Medicaid rule.
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We have a paid caregiver use our car for going out to lunch. We have to provide documentation showing insurance and license fees are paid. Caregiver can also use her car for transport, but federally allowed reimbursements are then paid to the agency. Currently that is 57 cents a mile.
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I suggest you contact someone with Medicaid to ask them this question. I know we, as family members, have used Mom's car to take her places, but we have no experience with paid care givers using it. Insurance company would probably need to be notified that Mom is no longer driving and strangers are using the car, because rates are partially based on the driver.

This response was primarily to bump up this question back to the first page. Maybe someone with experience will respond.
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