October 9, 2019

If you’ve already sat down with your estate planning lawyer in New Jersey and still have questions about what Medicaid will pay for when it comes to long term care, advanced planning can help to address many of your concerns and questions directly.

If you need to go to a specialist’s office or a doctor, Medicare will most likely pay for these services, whereas Medicaid will pay second by covering co-payments, co-insurances, and deductibles.

However, when going into a nursing home for long term care, it is important that you understand how Medicaid operates. There are a few things you should know before initiating an application for institutional Medicaid. These include:

• That you will still be able to keep a small portion of your income as a personal allowance although this amount varies from one state to another and should be discussed with your estate planning lawyer.
• The program will look at you and your spouse’s individual situation when it comes to counting your assets and your income.
• Medicaid has a look back period in most states of up to five years, meaning that the state will count any assets that you transferred in the few most recent years when determining your eligibility.
• You’ll need to discuss with your elder law attorney how owning your home could potentially impact your Medicaid eligibility and coverage.       

If you want more information about how to plan for Medicaid applications in the future, speaking to a dedicated estate planning attorney.