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Posts Tagged ‘Nursing Home Care’

Have you heard of long term care insurance for so many times but still unaware on how is it going to affect you? The common blunder is that people only consider getting insurance coverage once they get into a point when they are seriously ill, incapable of doing simple chores, and run out of budget for nursing home care. You may have vigorous lifestyle and health today, but someday those comforts will suddenly fade in later years. Long term care insurance, although ideally, saves you from catastrophic experiences of adulthood and retains the life you have had, without worrying that your family’s finances are at stake. Here are some reasons why long term care insurance is important:

1. Having long term care insurance keeps your independence and dignity. How? Some people exhaust their assets for out of pocket expenses on nursing home only to end up bankrupt, while others puts their money in trusts. Without sufficient money or resources to fund for long term care, you may qualify for the federal program called Medicaid. Medicaid beneficiaries receive mediocre services: most nursing homes reject Medicaid patients, and if they do they only offer semi-private with little or no privacy. It’s never that easy to qualify for Medicaid than what you have expected, and if you prefer home care or assisted living then Medicaid is not a good option. Medicaid won’t sign you up for coverage unless you have net assets of $2000 or have your properties under estate recovery. Whether you like it or not, Medicaid will let you stay in nursing home, period. However, if you have long term care insurance you can freely choose which type of setting suits you best and makes you feel comfortable. Assisted living facilities are far better from nursing homes where residents enjoy complete privacy and comfy home-like environment.

2. Married couples may have problems financing LTC. If one spouse needs LTC, the other will be forced to pay for outside caregiver or nursing home care. The money used in paying for the care usually comes from the couple’s savings or combined assets. If the care extends, the spouse may be left with minimal assets for future needs. However, LTCi fixes this issue where your spouse’s assets are protected.

3. Many healthy care giving individual do not consider insurance option and would rather pay their own care without help from anyone. If the care of the disabled or sick family member drags on too long, this can affect the caregiver both mentally and physically.

4. Long term care insurance relieves the burden it could give to your children, spouse, friends, and family members. So when your children or spouse promised to take care of you, the LTCi can help them fulfill that promise. The insurance can pay for additional home health aide or nurse to help your loved one perform care-giving activities.

5. You probably want to pass your hard-earned assets to your children, LTC insurance helps you protect your assets against the cruel cost of long term care so you can save them for your heir/s.

6. They say single men and women may suffer the worst because they are more likely to live alone. These people prefer to get as little help from their friends and relatives and shoulder everything on their own. LTCi helps those single individuals maintain a good lifestyle and health care.

It’s not a surprise that thousands of families across the nation are facing the challlenges of an aging population. The “sandwich” generation, those who are caring for their children as well as their parents, have been feeling the financial pinch of caring for loved ones. Paying the high cost of Elder Care can cost a family thousands of dollars a month. Too many families are unaware of how utilizing a loved one’s life insurance policy can not only pay for Assisted Living and Nursing Home care, but can maintain the standards of living for the remaining spouse.

Not too many financial specialist inform their clients who have purchased life insurance policies with a death benefit over $250,000 that they can utilize a somewhat unknown option on their life insurance to pay for the high cost of Elder Care. It is called a Life Settlement and it can fully take the financial burden off of families who struggle to keep their loved one in a quality facility.

A policy owner has the right to sell his or her life insurance policy to an institution for signifantly more than the cash value of the policy. For example, a life insurance policy with a $500,000 death benefit and a $75,000 cash value can be purchased for $250,000 and up. This money can be used now to pay for assisted living, nursing homes as well as in home services also. The procedure is relatively quick with minimal paperwork.
It is senseless to struggle financially to pay for the needs of elderly loved ones when they can utilize their life insurance policy to pay for care. Many, many times life insurance policies lapse when a loved one goes into assisted living or a nursing home just out of financial neccessity as well as through medicaid planning.

Instead of letting a policy lapse or into surrendership, smart families are looking into life settlements as a funding source for the high expense of Elder Care.

Long-term care is a growing concern for many people today, because people are living longer. There are more people turning sixty-five then turning eighteen. The question I ask people is how they will pay for long-term care if needed in the future. The cost is ranging from $40,000 a year to $100,000 a year depending on where you live. There are different funding sources available for long-term care and they will be discussed in the article. The funding sources range from family to personal assets, federal government and long-term care insurance.

The first funding source for long-term care is your family. Your family is affected the most because of the emotional decisions that must be made for the person needing care. Your family must decide where that person will receive the care needed. The different places can be home, assisted living, adult day care and a nursing home. The cost of each place can be very different based on the level of care needed for the person. The money for these different places will be paid by the family. This can cause a financial hardship for all the family members.

The second funding source is someone’s assets, like cash, retirement money, and property. With the cost of care at $40,000 to $100,000 a year, the question is how long will someone be able to pay for this cost?

The third source is two programs of the federal government called Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is based on your health and will pay for home health care for a limited time. Medicaid is based on your wealth and will pay only for nursing home care. Most people will qualify for Medicaid after they have spent down their assets and income. If you are married, the spouse at home can keep $2000 of income to live on and $100,000 of assets. If you are single all your assets are to be spent down to qualified. These rules for Medicaid are different for each state and I would call your local social security office to know your state rules.

The last source is long-term care insurance and has been around since the eighties. This policy is designed to give people options on the amount of money to available for long-term care and the different places where the money can be used. The money can be used for home health care, adult day care, assisted living and a nursing home. The amount of money sit aside for care will be decision by the amount of premium paid by the individual.

In conclusion, the idea of paying for long-term care can be very stressful based on the cost. Deciding on which funding source to use to pay for long-term care can be hard. It will be based on the individual situation on which source to use. The best way to decide is to talk to your financial person about which source would be best for your situation.

Q:

As many people know by now, the eligibility rules for Medicaid changed drastically in February, 2006, when the legislature enacted the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA). It is much more difficult to help clients needing nursing home care become Medicaid eligible.

What many people may not be aware of, however, is that in New York, there is no lookback period and no penalty period for Medicaid Home Care. Elder law attorneys are still able to do a lot to help seniors who need a home health aide in the home but are afraid of depleting their assets and becoming penniless.

It has been my experience as an elder law attorney that most people prefer to remain in their homes as long as possible. With a proper care plan in place, seniors are very often able to stay in their homes longer. As you might imagine, a senior’s health may stay in tact much longer if he or she is getting proper meals and hydration, routine medical care and receiving supervision with walking and getting around, thus avoiding falls. This basic kind of care can keep a senior healthy and functional for years longer than may otherwise be possible.

There may come a time when a senior needs a nursing home level of care. However, it is just as possible that having care in the home may prevent the need to ever put that person in a nursing home.

Medicaid and New York Application Process

The process of getting someone eligible for home care and applying for home care in New York takes at least 3 months, if not longer. In New York, there are a few different ways of applying for home care. You may submit an application through one of the Medicaid field offices (called “CASAs”). You may apply through one of the Certified Home Health Agencies (“CHHAs”). You may also apply through the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (“CDPAP”). Your elder law attorney will help you decide which avenue to go down depending on your particular situation. In New York City, for instance, I often apply through a CHHA, because once the CHHA is satisfied that all the application requirements have been met, it may put the care in place before the Medicaid agency even approves the application.

If a client already has an aide in place and wants to keep that person, assuming that aide is able to be certified, I would go through the CDPAP program, which allows consumers to hire their own aides, within certain parameters.

The home care application process is time-consuming and confusing. Once you foresee there may be a need in the future, you should start investigating your options as soon as possible, because, as with most governmental programs, there is a lot of paperwork involved.

With so many insurance providers offering a variety of policies, it comes quite a difficult task to select the right long term care insurance. Also, no two persons will need the same kind of medical care. Hence, the task of selection looks ominous at first glance.

Long term care insurance offers security for an aging person if he or she suffers from any health related problems. It covers home care, nursing home care and even assisted living facility if the need arises. As a person ages, he or she would require help to do their daily living tasks and long term care insurance will take care of this. While such an insurance can be costly, it is something that every aging person should have.

Before buying long term care insurance, it is prudent to check out the insurance provider. Make sure that the provider has been around for years together, and is financially sound and reliable. It could be years before you avail the insurance and you should be assured that the insurance provider will still be around.

Check out the policy carefully. Think about how long the elimination period should be. This is the period during which you pay your health costs on your own and once this finishes, the insurance takes over the payment. The elimination period is invariably of 90, 60 or 0 days. In addition, also figure out how long you want the insurance coverage for. It could be 2 years, 5 years or for unlimited years. Ensure that the coverage is offered for all kinds of care, including nursing home, specialized nursing facility, assisted living facility and/or care at your home.

Once you have figured out all these details and decided on what you want, go ahead and purchase the insurance. However, make sure that you read the terms and conditions carefully before signing on the dotted lines. In case you do not understand, as the insurance agent to explain in plain and simple English.