Medicaid Strategy

Turn to Medicaid

Medicaid is a primary source of funding for long-term care when an individual or their family can’t afford it on their own. However, there are certain eligibility concerns, including income thresholds, medical necessity, lookback periods, Medicaid pending, and bed availability. ECFP’s planning often utilizes strategic Medicaid eligibility. This ensures a supplemental savings to allow for added care and other expenses as needed. It also allows greater flexibility in choosing the care provider.

Medicaid planning for married couples

For most, the need to think about Medicaid comes at the worst possible time when moving a loved one into a nursing home, senior living community or starting home care. Medicaid planning is very complex and “figuring it out” on your own can cost a family tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in care costs that could have been avoided. Married couples can often preserve most of their assets for the healthy spouse by implementing the right legal and financial planning strategy under the directions of specialist in elder care planning.

Medicaid eligibility for singles adults

Each state has different eligibility requirements to get approved for Medicaid coverage. In general, though, here is what single adults need to know about their Medicaid eligibility.

Assets and income

According to the American Council on Aging, in most states, a senior adult who is 65 years or older must have an income that is less than $2,742 a month for 2023 ($32,904 annually.) All of the individual’s monthly income is counted towards their total, including Social Security, Pensions, VA benefits (most states exempt a significant portion of the VA’s Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit), and annuity payments. Applicants must have their income verified by Medicaid by showing proof through documentation. This could be through 1099 tax records, bank statements, brokerage statements, social security annual award letter, pension statements, etc. If someone’s income exceeds the limit, there are planning strategies which can make someone with a higher income eligible for Medicaid. It is this expertise which makes Elder Care Financial Planning such a valuable referral resource to thousands of long term care communities around the country.

Medicaid also considers a person’s assets. There are two types of assets, countable and non-countable. Countable assets are liquid assets that the applicant can reasonably turn into cash. These include bank accounts, cash, certificates of deposit, stocks, bonds, brokerage accounts, rental or vacation properties as well as anything that can reasonably be used to pay for care.

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