I have a question about the "look-back" period for Medicaid eligibility. The lady in question had a daughter who was her caregiver and also has two sons who live out of state but visited regularly. Against the wishes of the sons, the daughter had complete control of her mother's finances and made sure that the sons could not get any information. The mother refused to let the sons check into her finances. The daughter died suddenly and when the sons got access to the financial records, they found that the daughter had gone through almost $400,000 of the mother's money and run up huge credit card bills (she had opened credit card accounts in her mother's name by just putting the applications in front of her mother to sign and the mother is legally blind so she couldn't see what she was signing). Cash was withdrawn a few times a week from the mother's account and money was transferred into an account in the daughter's name only (that money is gone). The charge cards were maxed out with purchases made by the daughter (she was an "authorized" user, of course.....) Unfortunately, the daughter had been added to the bank accounts as an "account holder", so technically there was no "fraud" and the bank has no responsibility.
So, the mother will need soon to go into some sort of assisted living and will need to go on Medicaid, as there is very little money left. Will the money that was "taken" by the late daughter count as a "gift" since it wasn't *technically* stolen? I know that "gifts" within the look-back period will result in delay of benefits.
We'll be seeing a lawyer in May about this, but I just wondered if anyone had any similar experiences or knowledge.
Your option for Assisted Living would be her SS check and VA aid if she was married to a wartime veteran. A good ALF will help you find aid, and Medicaid only covers NH care anyway.
yeah the attorney can do this (their para-legal's) but it will be very expensive and really they can do this own their own.
Now keep in mind, that by & large, Medicaid pays for NH for those that are "at-need" both financially & medically for skilled nursing care. Most states do not have Medicaid pay for AL per se. Some states have Medicaid diversion programs which will pay for AL but the # of slots for those are limited. AL's do not have to participate in Medicaid like most NH do. For most facilities, AL is all private pay. If this is a tiered facility (goes from IL to AL to NH and with hospice) the AL is the profit center for them as it is overwhelmingly private pay. So be sure to be very clear with whatever place you all are looking at as to whether Medicaid is even an option to pay for her care.
this isnt helpful to your question but it might save someone else on here a lot of malfeasance and grief. as poa i would have welcomed that..