Medi-Cal and Long-Term Care
1. What is the cost?
- Nursing home care is expensive. Costs can easily exceed $135 per day, or $50,000 per year. Since the average length of stay in a nursing home is 2.5 to 3 years, it is easy to see how your life’s savings could be wiped out in just a short period of time.
2. Who pays?
- Finding a way to pay for nursing home care is a big concern for most families. Unfortunately, many people have the mistaken belief that Medicare will pay the cost of long-term care. NOT SO!!! MEDICARE WILL NOT PAY FOR LONG TERM CARE. Consequently, many families end up PRIVATELY PAYING for long-term care until they become poor and destitute.
3. What are the benefits of Medi-Cal?
- MEDI-CAL is a Federal/State program that WILL pay for long-term care. But, in order to qualify for MEDI-CAL assistance, you must meet Federal guidelines for income and assets. The MEDI-CAL qualification process is extremely complicated. The rules are changing all the time and asset protection strategies have legal ramifications. DO NOT BE MISLED – Only a qualified attorney can give competent legal advice.
4. What are my rights?
- “A Medi-Cal applicant may reduce his or her non-exempt property to within the specified limits in any way he or she chooses except that, a transfer of non-exempt property for less than fair market value may result in a period of ineligibility.”
- “This can include purchasing exempt personal property.
- That’s right!!! You may LEGALLY preserve your assets and qualify for Medi-Cal.
5. How can Elder Law Services help?
- We can LEGALLY protect the family home and other assets. We can qualify you or your loved ones either before or after admission to a long-term care facility.