Is There Ever an Easy Medicaid Application? Part 3
Continuing the topic of my last 2 blog posts, I was discussing a snag we hit with a Medicaid application - the discovery of at least one account of which our clients had no recollection. When we identify the bank in these situations, that has always been enough for the bank
Is There Ever an Easy Medicaid Application? Part 2
In my post last week I began to tell you about an “easy” Medicaid application that suddenly became not so easy. A deposit in one of the applicant’s known accounts led to the revelation that there had been at least one other account unbeknownst to the applicant’s daughter. What this means is
Is There Ever an Easy Medicaid Application? Part 1
When I speak with people for the first time about the Medicaid application process - specifically about the 5 year look back and the amount of documentation required - they often tell me that in their case it should be easy. “Mom never had much,” they’ll tell me. But is that necessarily
The Home and Not Much Else (Part 3)
In this week’s post, I continue to discuss a common fact pattern we see in our office. The case involves someone who needs long term care, doesn’t have enough to pay for it but does have a house. As I explained last week, the available government benefit programs don’t always cover the
How Not to Lose Medicaid (Part 5)
In last week’s post I explained that when the non-Medicaid spouse dies, the Medicaid spouse must receive at least a minimum amount of assets from the deceased spouse. This is known as the elective share and in New Jersey is determined to be 1/3 of the deceased spouse’s estate less what
How Not to Lose Medicaid (Part 2)
In my post last week I explained that once a Medicaid application is approved, everything isn’t on autopilot. What I mean is that you must be vigilant so as not to lose the benefits once you have them. That can happen a number of ways such as a change in circumstance.
How Not to Lose Medicaid (Part 1)
Whenever I talk to families about how to get Medicaid approved, there are so many elements to a successful application and so many confusing requirements that the tendency is to relax a bit, thinking the job is done when we first get the application approved. One example is with respect to
2023 Medicaid Penalty Divisor
As I have written about frequently in this blog, many of the Medicaid and VA benefit numbers are updated annually. Most are adjusted in lock step with Social Security’s cost of living adjustment (COLA). With inflation being as high as it has been in many years, the COLA for 2023 was also
The Imperfect Medicaid Approval – Part 2
In my post last week, I wrote about a trend we are seeing with our Medicaid applications - with every approval we get there almost always is something incorrect about the decision. Last week I told you that some of the mistakes can be easily corrected. Others, however, require that we file
The Imperfect Medicaid Approval -Part 1
In this week’s blog post I return to the topic of Medicaid. As I often tell people these days, Medicaid application are more challenging than they have ever been. But even after we get our cases approved, rarely is there an instance in which the approval is a perfect one. There almost