Medicaid Crisis Planning Attorney Serving Wisconsin.
Medicaid lawyers assist clients in preparing for long-term care. Medicaid lawyers can help seniors with the Medicaid application process, which involves filling out extensive paperwork and providing documentation supporting the application.
The assistance of a Medicaid lawyer can be invaluable when an applicant’s income or assets are higher than the limits set by Medicaid. The lawyer can strategize with the client to help them lower their income and assets within an acceptable time frame and execute the plan once it is finalized.
Medicaid lawyers can also coordinate with insurance carriers that provide valuable vehicles such as Medicaid Compliant Annuities to help clients achieve their financial goals.
If you have questions about Medicaid Crisis Planning, call Silver Divorce Wisconsin today. We’re just a phone call away.
Why Do You Need a Medicaid Crisis Planning Attorney in Wisconsin?
Many seniors and their families avoid hiring an attorney to plan for long-term care or Medicaid due to financial concerns. But we can help you save money over time and ensure that your loved one receives the finest care possible.
Instead of taking action based on what you’ve heard from others, doing nothing, or hiring a non-legal recommended by a nursing facility, you can retain our professional Medicaid Crisis Planning attorney. Here are some reasons you should at least explore this alternative:
No Conflict of Interest
When nursing homes send patients’ families to non-attorneys for assistance in completing the Medicaid application, the preparer owes dual allegiances to the facility that made the reference and the applicant for benefits. As everyone desires the Medicaid application to be approved, there is no conflict of interest.
Our Medicaid Crisis Planning attorney may assist with Medicaid planning. We have a duty of allegiance exclusively to our client and will do our best to fulfill the client’s objectives.
Deep Knowledge and Experience
Our Medicaid Crisis Planning attorney has the experience and knowledge to advise our clients on how they can achieve their goals.
DEAL WITH SUDDEN CHANGES
Let Attorney Andrea Gage guide you through the Medicaid application process.
How Can a Medicaid Lawyer Help?
The help of a lawyer can also be crucial to ensuring that the spouse of a Medicaid client can live a financial independent life once the client moves into a long-term care environment.
Medicaid lawyers can help married couples maximize the Community Spouse Resource Allowance, which is the amount of assets a spouse is able to keep once the client is institutionalized. Lawyers also have special strategies for increasing the spouse’s Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance, which is the amount of income that can be transferred to the spouse every month to help support them.
How Does Wisconsin Define Medicaid?
Medicaid is a state and federally financed health care program for low-income individuals of all ages. This includes pregnant women, children, families, those with disabilities, and the elderly.
In addition to nursing home care and services in adult foster care homes and assisted living facilities, Wisconsin Medicaid now pays for non-medical support services to assist fragile seniors in remaining at home or in a family member’s home.
What Are Wisconsin Medicaid Long-Term Care Programs?
Seniors in Wisconsin may be eligible for various Medicaid long-term care programs. These programs have varied advantages and qualifying conditions. The eligibility requirements for multiple programs vary depending on marital status, and Wisconsin offers numerous paths to Medicaid enrollment, which complicates determining eligibility.
Institutional or Nursing Home Medicaid
This is a benefits program. Anyone who qualifies for assistance will receive it. Benefits are only made available in nursing homes.
Medicaid Waivers or Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS)
These programs are not entitlements. Participants are restricted, and there may be waiting lists. Benefits are offered at home, in adult day care, in an adult family home or adult foster care home, or in assisted living to prevent and postpone nursing facility admissions.
Regular Medicaid (Elderly, Blind, or Disabled)
This is an entitlement program. If the qualifying criteria are satisfied, services will be provided. Available long-term care services may include personal care support and adult day care.
Who Can Get Medicaid?
Medicaid eligibility requirements vary from state to state. To qualify for Medicaid, you must generally have a low income and few assets. However, not all low-income individuals with little assets qualify for the program. Medicaid eligibility includes disability, pregnancy, and age over 65.
Medicaid eligibility for individuals with disabilities is contingent on meeting income and asset restrictions. SSI recipients automatically qualify for Medicaid in the majority of states.
Medicaid is available to pregnant women who fulfill the income and asset criteria. Medicaid-eligible women are automatically insured for one year following the birth of their children. Many states grant Medicaid coverage to pregnant women with higher incomes and assets than the federal guidelines allow.
Women with breast or cervical cancer can receive treatment via a Medicaid program designed specifically for these conditions. Numerous states provide this coverage to women with higher incomes.
Children in homes with incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid but too low to buy private insurance may be eligible for coverage under their state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Who qualifies for CHIP varies by state, with most states’ eligibility requirements lying between 200 and 400 percent of the federal poverty threshold.
Are Revocable Living Trusts Useful in Qualifying for Medicaid?
Many individuals mistakenly believe that transferring assets to a revocable trust qualifies an individual for Medicaid. For Medicaid eligibility, assets kept in a revocable trust are always considered to belong to the individual.
This is because the individual retains control over the asset in a revocable trust, either by keeping the authority to revoke the trust or the capacity to influence the disposal of the assets, such as by serving as a trustee of the revocable trust.
Are Irrevocable Living Trusts Useful in Qualifying for Medicaid?
Medicaid will count as a resource any asset in an irrevocable trust that the trustee may distribute to the beneficiary. As the trust does not permit distributions to the beneficiary, it will be considered a transfer of resources subject to Medicaid’s transfer penalty.
Even while irrevocable trusts can shield assets from being counted by Medicaid, Medicaid will still consider the transfer of assets to the trust as an ineligible transfer.
What is the Medicaid Coverage for Nursing Homes?
Medicaid in Wisconsin offers coverage for nursing home patients 65 years or older, blind or handicapped, and who meet income and resource eligibility standards. To acquire coverage for nursing home care, you must be financially eligible and need the type of care provided by nursing homes.
Wisconsin utilizes a technique called the “Long-Term Care Functional Screen” (LTCFS) to evaluate if a patient qualifies for a Medicaid-funded facility by requiring assistance with sufficient “activities of daily living,” such as washing, dressing, transferring, and giving medications.
What Are the Medicaid Income Rules in Wisconsin?
In Wisconsin, a single individual can qualify for Medicaid-funded nursing home care with a certain monthly income.
These LTC income restrictions may be greater than the income limits for those applying for other Medicaid health benefits. For purposes of evaluating Medicaid eligibility for long-term care, all income sources are evaluated. However, when only one member of a married couple applies for Medicaid, the non-applicant spouse’s income is not considered, ensuring that the non-applicant spouse has sufficient means to survive.
If the non-applicant spouse has no income, they may retain a minimum monthly needs allowance ranging from $2,818.34 to $3,216 from the applicant spouse’s income. If you are eligible for Medicaid and reside in a nursing home, you will be required to spend nearly all your income on your care.
Medicaid in Wisconsin permits nursing home patients to keep about $45 per month as a personal needs allowance. Note that Wisconsin also offers a Medically Needy route, or “spend-down” program — the Medicaid Deductible Program — that enables applicants with incomes above the Medicaid income limit to qualify for Medicaid services.
DEAL WITH SUDDEN CHANGES
Let Attorney Andrea Gage guide you through the Medicaid application process.
What Are the Medicaid Asset Rules in Wisconsin?
Medicaid for long-term care contains eligibility requirements for resources distinct from those of other Wisconsin Medicaid programs. Resources include
- real estate,
- personal property,
- cash-value life insurance,
- automobiles,
- RVs,
- boats,
- bank accounts, and
- cash.
What Services Does Medicaid Pay For?
Each state can select which services will be covered by its Medicaid program. However, some are mandatory. This includes
- inpatient and outpatient hospital bills,
- medications,
- lab costs,
- long-term care services,
- transportation to medical appointments,
- and pediatric eye and dental care.
Even though Medicaid may pay for specific treatments, it might be difficult for a Medicaid client to obtain them if no provider in the state takes Medicaid as payment.
In many rural regions of the country, for instance, no dentists take Medicaid. Therefore Medicaid-eligible children may not have access to dental treatment. Medicaid recipients must demonstrate that a particular service is medically essential for Medicaid to pay for it.
Each state has defined medical necessity as it applies to its Medicaid program, as there is no federal definition. The medical necessity criteria generally prohibit Medicaid participants from receiving elective treatment and procedure coverage.
What is Medicaid Planning?
Long-term care planning includes Medicaid planning. Numerous individuals over 65 may require long-term care sometimes, and the expenses associated with this sort of care are pretty expensive. Everyone should incorporate planning for long-term care in their estate plan.
The good news is that Medicaid will sometimes assist pay for long-term care. However, there are rigorous income and asset restrictions. Medicaid planning entails maintaining Medicaid eligibility while keeping as many assets as feasible.
What Is Crisis Medicaid Planning?
Crisis Medicaid Planning is legal and financial planning done to accelerate a client’s eligibility for Medicaid benefits. It’s used when a client is in need of immediate financial relief from high long-term care costs, and they haven’t had the opportunity to do what is referred to as pre-planning.
Pre-planning includes the purchase of long-term care insurance, prior funding of an asset protection trust, or a similar financial move done in advance to make long-term care more affordable.
Why Should You Engage in Medicaid Planning?
Many believe that Medicaid planning is only for those who cannot afford nursing home care. However, there is more to it than meets the eye. Families participate in Medicaid planning to guarantee acceptance into the Medicare program and the best possible care for their loved ones. Planning for Medicaid is necessary to make the lives of your loved ones easier in an emergency or accident.
There are many reasons why should you engage in Medicaid Crisis Planning:
- Long-term care is expensive, and many families can’t afford to pay the hefty cost of nursing homes.
- Families want to ensure their loved ones get the best possible care.
- You need the service of our competent Medicaid Crisis Planning attorney because Medicaid eligibility is a complicated process.
- Medicaid planning is necessary to ensure that old family members get the best care. Our skilled Medicaid Crisis Planning attorney makes sure that all your documents are error-free.
- Medicaid planning ensures that the spouse who lives at home will have all the financial resources to continue living independently.
- Wisconsin Medicaid Planning is necessary to preserve the family’s assets and ensure that the next generation can live comfortably and afford quality education.
Schedule a Consultation With Our Skilled Medicaid Crisis Planning Attorney!
Silver Divorce Wisconsin is committed to assisting in the protection of the elderly and their families by safeguarding their dignity, honor, and family unity.
Our knowledgeable Medicaid Crisis Planning attorney assists our senior clients and their families in becoming eligible for Medicaid. Schedule a consultation with us today!
