Medicaid attorneys at The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. can provide assistance with the process of making a Medicaid plan. Making a Medicaid plan involves taking steps to ensure that you can qualify for Medicaid coverage in case you need Medicaid to pay for your care. This may become necessary because Medicaid covers important services that other types of insurance will not cover. For example, Medicaid covers long-term care at home and nursing home care which Medicare and other private insurance policies typically provide no coverage for unless you meet very specific requirements such as needing skilled nursing care after a qualifying hospital stay.

Because nursing home care, long-term care at home and the other services Medicaid covers can be very expensive, you could end up spending your entire life savings very quickly if you need Medicaid but cannot obtain coverage because you have too many assets to be eligible for this means-tested program. Making a Medicaid plan allows you to ensure that the financial assets you want to keep will not cause you to be disqualified from means-tested benefits. The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. can provide help making the right plan for your situation to protect as much wealth as possible.

You should get legal help to make your Medicaid plan because if you try to make plans on your own, you could inadvertently make mistakes that end up causing you to become disqualified from Medicaid eligibility. For example, one of the most common mistakes that you could end up making is the mistake of trying to give away or transfer wealth in order to become eligible for Medicaid benefits.

Can You Give Away Wealth to Become Eligible for Medicaid?

When you need nursing home care or long-term care, if you haven’t made a Medicaid plan and you cannot get covered by Medicaid, you could find yourself facing a situation where you have to pay out-of-pocket. When you look at the costs of nursing home care or home healthcare provided in your home, you will likely become very concerned about how quickly you are going to go through your entire life savings. You could be left unable to leave a legacy as a result of the high costs that you will have to pay for nursing home care.

It can be tempting to try to just give your wealth to your loved ones right away so your children or other relatives can inherit the money and property you wish to provide to them, rather than you being forced to spend that money on a nursing home. Unfortunately, if you try to just transfer your wealth to your loved ones, you could actually end up causing yourself to be temporarily disqualified from Medicaid.

This occurs because of the five year lookback rule. The five year lookback rule put in place by Medicaid prohibits you from getting Medicaid coverage for a designated time period if you have given away wealth or transferred assets for less than the fair market value of those assets. If you gave away your wealth to your loved ones in order to get qualified for Medicaid, your period of disqualification would be based on the number of months determined by dividing the value of transferred assets by the cost of nursing home care in your area. If you transfer $10,000 worth of assets and the cost of a nursing home in your area is $5,000 monthly, for example, you would face a period of disqualification lasting for two months ($10,000 divided by $5,000).

You don’t want to accidentally disqualify yourself from getting benefits, especially when there may still be ways to protect your wealth if you work with Medicaid attorneys on a crisis plan.

Getting Help from Medicaid Attorneys

Medicaid attorneys at The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. can help you to make a Medicaid plan that will protect as much of your wealth as possible given your circumstances, without causing you to become disqualified from Medicaid coverage. To find out more about how our firm can help you, join us for a free seminar. You can also give us a call at (585) 546-1734 or contact us online to talk with an attorney about making your personalized Medicaid plan.