In New Jersey are there allowances for dependents to stay in the home if they have been living there for 7 yrs? My dad is in a NH already but is Medicaid pending 6 months because I’m trying to stay in the home they have denied caregiver allowance and now trying to deny the allowance clause but said if I keep up the bills I can stay. I sent documentation on how I could keep up the bills with unemployment and copies of the bills taxes etc?
www.state.nj.us/humanservices/dmahs/info/resources/manuals/
New Jersey Administrative Code TITLE 10. HUMAN SERVICES CHAPTER 60. HOME CARE SERVICES SUBCHAPTER 3. PERSONAL CARE ASSISTANT (PCA) SERVICES
§ 10:60-3.8 Limitations on personal care assistant services
TITLE 10. HUMAN SERVICES, § 10:60-3.8 Limitations on personal care assistant services
(a) Medicaid and NJ FamilyCare-Plan A reimbursement shall not be made for personal care assistant services provided to Medicaid or NJ FamilyCare-Plan A beneficiaries in the following settings: 1. A residential health care facility; 2. A Class C boarding home; 3. A hospital; 4. A nursing facility; 5. Licensed pediatric community transition homes; 6. DDD group homes, skill development homes, supervised apartments or other congregate living programs where personal care assistance is provided as part of a service package which is included in the living arrangement; 7. DYFS-supervised group homes for children ...
Since your dad is already in a nursing home and is “Medicaid pending 6 months”; then “No.”--You are not entitled to receiving payment for personal care assistant services because you are NO LONGER providing that service to your Dad.
Who owns the house that you (and your Dad?) have been living in for 7 years? If your Dad is the owner, then when the house is sold, Medicaid will most likely require that the profits from the sale of the house be given to them (Medicaid) as reimbursement for the money that they have already paid towards your Dad’s care in the nursing home and not to you or any other heir.
Hope that this answers your question.
If your dad has a home, by & large Medicaid allows for him to keep the home as an exempt asset. HOWEVER,due to the copay requirement dad will have no-none-nada of his $ to pay a penny on house still in his name. Family will need to pay all property costs from day 1 of LTC Medicaid till beyond death. And then deal with however your state deals with Medicaid’s Estate Recovery system (MERP).
If in the 7 years you lived at the house and provided full time caregiving that kept dad from entering a facility for a significant period of time, & you can document this, then you should qualify for the caregiver exemption to MERP. If your state takes the position that caregiver exemption or any other exemption or exclusions to MERP all are done as an after death process, then you kinda have to have the wallet to afford all property costs for an indefinite period of time and be ok with risk.
If Medicaid is expecting you to pay rent to dad, this is going to get way complicated.
From what you’ve posted in the past, it seems that NJ is pretty rigid on Medicaid rules especially as to how exemptions and estate recovery is done. It’s not a pro property owner state like TX & FL are. Not pretty.
So is it that NJ - like other states - allows the LTC Medicaid recipient to keep their home as an exempt asset, BUT requires that the DPOA or family establish that they can afford all costs on the property? Like they have to provide wage/ income info in order for Medicaid to allow the house to be an exempt asset be get application approved?
I’ve heard anecdotally that some states require family who are living in the home to pay fmv rent to the elder property owner, which can snowball into a problem for their Medicaid eligibility for income as between their existing SS and the new “rental income” could take them over the income maximum. And you can’t do a Miller Trust for rental income as it’s not from a qualified guaranteed source.
If family have to pay rent, or provide some sort of escrow like account for property costs, I’d bet it totally makes family rethink “keeping maws house” as their expectations are to live there for free without encumbrance.
As an aside on this, speaking of escrow, federally backed RMs now require the borrower to show ability to pay the required insurance and taxes on the house. So they have to have income without the RM $ to be high enough to easily pay these costs. Otherwise they need to do an escrow like account for those costs before RM can be done. Where I am, in Louisiana, if you get a RM mortgage on your old paid off home, you will need 3 property insurance - homeowners, flood & windstorm. Often homeowner was used to paying an single old cheap homeowners policy. Lots cannot afford the new triple insurance costs required as the RM is new lending so cannot get federally backed RMs. Windstorm alone can be thousands of $$ as it’s pooled risk.
Not sure if you have to keep the house up. By law I am not responsible for Moms debts so can't see how they could make me pay. I would have closed up the house the day she went into the NH. All utilities would have been shut off, taxes and insurance not paid. I refuse to spend my retirement money on a house that is falling down. Its 125 years old. Once I find a place for disabled nephew, I will be shutting it down. The Township can have it for unpaid taxes. She only owes 6k to Medicaid since she was only on it for 3months. It always surprises me that people want to keep Mom/Dads house. TG I never had to deal with rent. Not sure if they would have made me keep up taxes. My lawyer told me not to pay them. Medicaid may not allow you to recoup the money when the house sells but they do have to allow the tax lean to be paid.