Lie #1: “I’m too overwhelmed with expenses already. Hiring a lawyer is just one more expense to add to the list.”

If hiring an attorney were just another added expense, I’d actually tell you not to come into my office.

It’s true.

The reason I’m an elder law attorney is because I want to see seniors leave my office better off than they were before they came to see me.

One of the biggest parts of my job is helping my clients safeguard some of their money from being used up on nursing home care.

But another equally large part of my work is assisting people to get benefits to help pay for their care!

Medicaid, which helps many seniors pay for care, is a complicated system. We’ll help you see how you may be able to qualify for benefits to pay for care. But it’s vital to know how you can use your money to minimize penalties.

It’s similar with Veteran’s benefits for senior vets. If you don’t qualify, the VA will just tell you “no.” By then, you’ve wasted months in the application process.

But if you’re working with a qualified elder law attorney who specializes in these complex areas, we’ll be able to show you which of your current expenses can be figured into your application.

This helps our clients get a “yes” answer much more often than if they file on their own… all while doing honest, legal work.

The difference is, we help you do things right so you have the best possible outcome.

(Plus, if your loved one with Alzheimer’s is a veteran or the widow of a veteran, ask me how you can get help with your application for Veteran’s benefits, absolutely FREE.)

I help my clients find out which benefits they might be able to qualify for.

And whether or not they qualify for a benefit, I help put the right shields in place for my clients to keep the most money.

There are two important things you should do from here:

First, I urge you to seek qualified counsel before filling out any applications for benefits.

Someone who is skilled in the area of Medicaid and VA will be able to help you get the maximum benefit available to you, without wasting months or years on multiple denied applications. You can’t afford to wait.

Second, if you want to learn more, visit my Alzheimer’s Legal Survival Guide at www.AlzheimersResourceKit.com/hammond/resources/legalguide.html.

To hear more about benefits, read items 51-69. There, you’ll find much more information about Medicaid. And with nursing home care ranging from $60,000 to $110,000 per year – or more – you can’t afford to be uninformed!

But if you’re like many of my clients, and you want answers now, you can call my office at (913) 338-5713.

In a short, cost-free phone consultation, one of my staff members will help you find out whether there are benefits you and your loved one with Alzheimer’s might qualify for.

Next time, you’re going to find out about Lie #2 – it just might be one you’ve been telling yourself all along!

Mary noticed her husband Harvey wasn’t as neat and orderly with his mail as he used to be. He scattered it in piles throughout the house. This was unlike Harvey. Lately he seemed confused about when and how to pay the bills.

Harvey also complained that he didn’t have good use of his fingers. They felt stiff he said, and he easily dropped things.

After a fall last spring that kept him in a hospital for six weeks, he was afraid of falling again. He now spent most of his time navigating in the wheelchair instead of walking with his walker. Said he felt safer that way. He knew something was different, but he didn’t know what it was.

One day Mary heard Harvey ask a neighbor the same question six or seven times, which was very unlike him. You see, Harvey had a brilliant mind. He worked as an engineer and could solve the most complex mathematical and scientific problems. He wrote solutions to problems with lightning speed. His mind was fully alert, until recently.

Mary had Harvey tested, and sure enough the results indicated early signs of Alzheimer’s. Not knowing what the future held and realizing Harvey was still capable, they smartly called my office. They wanted to protect their family’s savings. Harvey and Mary needed to find out how they could both maintain a good quality of life, even if Harvey should ever need long-term care.

They’d heard how families were sometimes forced to drain their family’s savings when a member entered into a long-term care facility. And the sad stories of the care-taking partner being left penniless without a means for their own care down the road.

We took a close look at their situation. Their assets, their home, their lifestyle, and the money they want to leave to their children. We helped them develop a plan with the right kind of legal structures in place to help them shield some of their assets should Harvey need to enter a long-term care facility. The plan took Mary’s future into consideration too.

How fast Alzheimer’s will progress is unpredictable. What is important is that a family begins to create the right kinds of protections before a loved one is out of money and out of options.

The earlier the safeguards are put in place, the better the result.

According to the law, to be eligible for Medicaid or other financial assistance for long-term care you must be medically needy of nursing home services AND impoverished; you must have less than $2,000. Now that you are both medically needy and impoverished, the state will conduct an audit of your finances for the previous five years.

If the state discovers recent “gifts” or property transfers of any amount to loved ones or charities, you could be denied care – even though you are now both medically needy and impoverished. This comes as a rude shock to many.

No one really understands how the government expects you to cure this penalty now that you need care and yet have no way to pay for it; nonetheless, you will be denied Medicaid benefits to pay for your nursing home care.

Under 42 U.S.C 1396p(c)(1)(D), the DRA amends the beginning date of the penalty period from the month the transfer occurred to generally the date on which the person is eligible for Medicaid and would otherwise be receiving institutional level of care based on an approved application for such care but for the imposition of the penalty period.

You can find more information on items 51-66 in my “Alzheimer’s Legal Survival Guide” at www.AlzheimersResourceKit.com/hammond/resources/legalguide.html.

After working with Mary and Harvey, Mary said she’ll sleep easier at night, knowing that they’ll both have the protected financial resources available so they can maintain a good quality of life for years to come.

The state laws that govern Medicaid or any financial assistance for long-term care are complicated and constantly changing. To make it easier for you to understand, and to find out how to protect your family’s savings as well as minimize potential penalties, we are offering you a free NO OBLIGATION telephone consultation.

You will be speaking with an expert who can provide insight and advice. The call is about twenty minutes. There is no charge for the call, but please be advised that the call could be extended to 40 minutes.

To secure a time for this free critically important consultation, please call my office at (913) 338-5713.

Over the next 6 weeks, I’m releasing my most valuable gems about how to get help paying for nursing home care. One new secret about where to get help and the kind of dangers you might encounter if you do nothing.

Why?

Because I want to help you know where you can find help, and what mistakes to avoid.

I want to make sure that even if you’ve already unknowingly made a “mistake,” there may be things you can do to keep from experiencing huge penalties.

To get an email with each new installment, go to www.LearnMedicaid.com/hammond to enter your name and email. You don’t want to miss out.

- Day 1: You’ll begin to discover how NOT to go totally broke when you have long term care costs.
- Day 1, part 2: 7 Secrets to Surviving Medicaid Spend Down… and what it means for you
- Day 2: When Medicare no longer cares for you… and it’s sooner than almost all seniors think!

I challenge you to take my e-course, “Don’t Go Broke in a Nursing Home” so that you and your loved one don’t end up unnecessarily out of money and out of options.

On the first day of my series, today, I’m filling you in on how to keep from making 3 Big Money Mistakes that many seniors unknowingly make! Click below to sign up:

www.LearnMedicaid.com/hammond

I got a letter from my client Theresa last week.

She wrote:

As you know, last summer I entered Mom into the nursing home. Her Alzheimer’s progressed. In the home, she’s physically active, social, and of course, her memory is lacking.

As she greets and visits with the other patients, she often takes off her glasses. The nursing home staff keeps a watchful eye for her misplaced glasses.

Unfortunately, she still loses her specs.

Sometimes she takes off her glasses and leaves them on the dinner tray. We lost at least one pair that way. Just a few months into the New Year, I’m now replacing her third pair.

Replacing her eyeglasses with their special prescription requires a bankroll.

With Medicaid limiting Mom’s personal monthly income to $30, I’m so relieved you helped me set up protections so there is money left over to pay for them. Mom’s bifocals cost a mint. With her tiny nose, she requires costly lightweight eyewear, otherwise she suffers with headaches. Her frames would NEVER be covered under Medicaid.

I’m so grateful we have money from the trust available so she can afford to live her remaining days comfortably. Without the planning we’d done with you, she would have to wait until I had funds to cover her expenses.

* * *

Theresa is not alone.

Many of our families face ancillary fees that can add up quickly.

Some of common expenses when your loved one is in the nursing home are hearing aids, dentures, hair appointments, nail manicures and pedicures, and sometimes transportation costs (to your house for dinner, dentists, or doctor appointments). It doesn’t take much for the costs to really add up.

Alzheimer’s patients frequently lose personal items like eyewear and dentures. These items need replacing immediately.

To help ensure quality of life for your loved one, you need money available to cover these expenditures. To save some of your loved one’s money from being spent on care, it’s a complicated process. It’s likely you need some solid advice and a well thought out plan. That’s where we can help.

We work with our clients’ families, so they can legally set money aside for these types of expenditures.

Unfortunately, most families are not aware of the sensitive timelines to set up this type of legal asset protective structure. The sooner planning begins, the more an attorney is likely to be able to save.

Once your family member applies for Medicaid to help cover medical costs, the government conducts the audit on your loved one’s accounts. The government can claim that any gifts an individual made were intended to help them qualify for long term care if it falls within the five-year period.

When you select a legal advisor, it’s important for you to work with someone who understands elder care law. Select an attorney who focuses in this area.

State laws constantly change, especially now with many states managing deep deficits.

State and federal governments are always looking for ways to slash Medicaid coverage.

When you select an attorney to help set up a plan for yourself, it’s important the attorney is intimately knowledgeable about the fine lines of the state laws so your money is protected and spent in a way that will not get you penalized in the future.

Something else to consider: planning is much better for all parties while the person still has the capacity to make their own decisions.

We provide our clients a free phone consultation. If you would like to find out more about how to put legal structure in place to protect and set aside funds so your loved one can maintain a good quality life while in a nursing home, feel free to contact me at (913) 338-5713.

If we cannot help you, we’ll direct you to resources that can. The call is free; don’t miss this opportunity to gain valuable insight.

When someone enters the nursing home, especially someone with Alzheimer’s, they often spend thousands on their care. In fact, some spend all of their money – down to just $2,000 and $30 of monthly income, before they qualify for Medicaid to pay the bills.

To help you find out if your loved one can keep some of their life savings from being spent on long term care, The Elder & Disability Law Firm has developed a Money Saving Strategy Assessment.

My clients have found this Money Saving Strategy Assessment to be extremely valuable.

One of my top team members will conduct this free consultation over the telephone with you, so you can discover what options you have.

My clients want to know right away the methods that can be used to safeguard at least a portion of their hard-earned life savings. They want to know what will work for them in their situation, right now.

For this reason, we created this Money Saving Strategy Assessment. We’ll tell you if there are steps you can take, right now, to protect yourself and your loved ones from needlessly losing everything to pay for long term care.

We’ll also be straightforward with you and let you know if there’s someone else who may be able to help you better than we can. Or, if there are no steps you need to take right now, we’ll tell you that, too.

You’ll discover in this free, no-nonsense consultation session:

-The steps you need to take, right now, to build protections around your loved ones to achieve your goal of never being out of money or out of options
-Benefits that may be available to you to help pay for the cost of in-home, assisted living, or nursing home care for years to come
-Honest, legal strategies that might be right for you and your family to avoid being unnecessarily impoverished
-Some of the valuable resources available to help seniors, right here in our community

The session is conducted by one of the top experts in my firm, who works with many of my clients to help them achieve peace of mind about their legal and financial future.

Please rest assured: this consultation will NOT be a thinly disguised sales presentation; it will consist only of expert information provided by my firm.

To secure a convenient time for this consultation, please call my office at (913) 338-5713. We will provide you with available time slots for your free personalized and confidential consultation.

We look forward to speaking with you soon.

Of all the challenging aspects of the Alzheimer’s journey, often the most confusing part for families is the financial piece of the puzzle. There are so many rules and restrictions, so many bills to pay and documents to draw up; all while trying to protect loved ones and the funds they’ve got. Most of the time, a family will have been doing their best to provide care for their loved one, but in spite of their best efforts they reach a point where they just can’t do it anymore. When this time comes, families/caretakers begin to realize the inevitability of nursing home care. They begin to look into facilities, and into costs. In Kansas City, they’ll find that memory care averages 6 to 6,500 dollars a month. They look at that figure and think, “how are we ever going to afford to pay 60-70,000 dollars a year for nursing home care?” They also come to understand that once their loved one is spent down to the Medicaid limits, they will only be allowed to keep a monthly allowance of $62 in Kansas and $30 in Missouri. They realize this and think, “our entire life savings is going away, and my loved one isn’t going to have anything extra left over to care for him/herself.” Inevitably, as this realization hits, they come to us at the Elder and Disability Law Firm and ask the question they think holds the most potential for easing their worries—“Can I give my money away?”

The answer to this question used to be pretty simple, but not anymore. This is because on February 8th, 2006, a new law called the Deficit Reduction Act or DRA was signed into effect. Everything that happened before that date follows the old rules, but everything that happened on or after it is subject to the new ones.

Let’s consider how this would have worked before the DRA came into being—because once you understand how it used to work, you can understand how it works now.

Under the old laws, pre-DRA, the state would say that nursing home care cost a certain amount of money, say $3,000 a month. The state would then say that if someone makes a gift, chooses to give their money away, for every one month’s cost of care that they give away they can’t apply for Medicaid for a month. So let’s say that a family chooses to gift $30,000. If the state has set nursing home cost at $3,000/month, the state would instruct us to divide that gift by the average cost of care—in this case $30,000 divided by $3,000, equaling ten. That ten would mean a ten month penalty period in which that person could not apply for Medicaid, and that ten month period would begin immediately from the date of the gift. So say that the family still had $50,000 left after the gift, they would simply use those funds to private pay for care until the penalty period was up and Medicaid could be applied for. It was a great way to set aside funds and protect some of the life savings of the Alzheimer’s patient.

But on February 8th 2006, the game changed considerably. President Bush signed the DRA, and the rules were rewritten. Under the new laws, the state now asks if any gifts have been made, either money or property, in the last five years. They then go a step further and say that if anything has been gifted in that time, unless you are already in a nursing home and spent down to the Medicaid limits, and unless Medicaid application has already been made, then that gift still creates a penalty period, but the penalty hangs around for that five year period. Before the DRA the penalty that gifting created began right away. Now, the gift would still create the penalty, but the period would not start to count down until you were in a nursing home, spent down to almost nothing, and applied for Medicaid. Additionally, the states have raised what they consider the average cost of nursing home care is; in Kansas and Missouri the cost can generally be considered around $4,000 a month, so gifts are now divided by that larger number, but the problem is that the penalty will still hang around for five years.

It’s at this point in the explanation the people are generally shaking their heads—it does sound awfully confusing. So what’s the bottom line?

The bottom line is this: in lots of cases there are still ways to protect moneys, even if you already have a loved one in a nursing home, but you certainly need the help of an Elder Law attorney to walk you through the process; because even though it used to be fairly simple, now there are some major hoops that need to be jumped through. With good legal advice and an Elder Law attorney who knows the ropes, you can save—as a rule of thumb—45-50 cents on the dollar. You never want to be out of money or out of options, and by properly setting things up you will have arranged it so that even if your loved one does need care, they will never be out of either thing, money or options, because you will have taken the proper steps.