I was told by 2 separate people that if my parent lives with me, there is a specific amount of time,(they thought about 6 months), that my parent would then become a part of my household income and they would no longer be able to get medicaid help if I felt my parent needed to go into a nursing home. My mother has dementia and I have been told it is only going to get worse.. I have children still living at home and have a very busy life style. I want to help care for my mother but, I want to know that if I can not handle her care any more, I can still put her into a nursing home with the help of medicaid. I can not afford $4000,00/mo. I live in Louisiana.I would appreciate any helpful information someone may have.
Medicaid's Home Care Benefits look for frail elder waiver
Keep your assets seperated
Today all 50 states and D.C. have at least one program that provides assistance to individuals living outside of nursing homes, be that at home, in adult day care or assisted living. Many states offer several programs, usually those that do will offer personal care assistance through their Medicaid State Plan (an entitlement program) and also through a Medicaid Waiver (which limits enrollment).
Possibly what they are referring to is the 5 year "look-back" period for Medicaid.
If you Mother is contributing to your household expenses Medicaid could look at that - if excessive could say she needs to spend that amount for care before they start paying. Also, any large sums from the last 5 years could be questioned.
I would think as long as she is paying a reasonable amount for her share of expense and for her personal necessities - that shouldn't be a problem.
When she goes to LTC all of her assets would have to be accounted for and spent down to Medicaid limits before Medicaid would pay.