My father is in an assisted living community through Medicaid and they leave him 90.00 per month out of his SS check which is standard. How much money can I put into his bank account before they will take it as pay-down? What is the maximum he can have In the account that Medicaid cannot touch?
The reason I say this is because Medicaid is paying for your father's care. To gain approval for Medicaid, the assets of your dad had to have been spent down, and all of his income would go towards his care with the exception of the monthly "allowance" of $90. Since Medicaid is paid by the taxpayers, and he qualified because there wasn't any more money to pay, then if money appears in his account over the $90 allowance Medicaid wants that money to go for his care...not for random spending. This $90 limit was placed by the state, so that they can be sure that there isn't money hiding somewhere that could be used for his care.
If you want to spend money on him, buy things for him and bring the items to the nursing home. This will allow you to provide him with some comforts he cannot afford on the $90 without causing Medicaid to re-examine his approval and possibly stop paying for his care.
Angel
? How is dad paying his copay or his SOC (share of cost)?
Is it that dad still has has checking account which gets his SS & other retirement, and you as his DPOA or dad writes a check to the NH for his SOC?
OR is dads monthly income being sent directly to the facility and they have establish a personal needs trust account in his name at the NH where the $ 90 goes into each month?
If its he pays from his bank account, you need to keep it such that it starts & ends each month under 2k so no issues if his state does a annual Medicaid renewal /re-eligibility and he needs to send in a few months of bank statements.
If its an at the NH kitty, you need to regularly go to the business office and sign off to withdraw some of the $ and buy him stuff. It also can be set up to draw every week for barber shop. Again all this is about keeping it under 2k.
There was a post awhile back from a DPOA who's mom's PNA @ the NH had built up to over 3k . DPOA didn't pay attention to it & was fuzzy on Medicaid rules. Anyways the NH went & ordered a fancy walker which depleted almost all the $$. Their rationale as that if this hadn't been done it would jeapordize medicaid. DPOA was pissed as she would have spent $ differently......
So it's important to pay attention to the $.
The skill nursing homes are part of the BIG GREEDY CORPORATIONS that make roughly $8,000 up to $9,000 + per month. IT IS CALLED CORRUPTION!