What You Need to Know About Nursing Home Costs

For over ten years I have asked and needed my mother to let me help her get prepared for a time when she can't do things on her own. I watched how she assisted my mamaw and pocketed tid bits of information away when it was needed.

I'm not going you to share the particulars of my mother's finances out publicly; but I don't mind sharing what I have learned.

In the past my mom had expressed an interest in staying in the same nursing home my mamaw stayed in.  I called today to ask what exactly it cost to live there. The amounts were not shocking you me only because I had been trying to prepare for this transition for a while and had already completed some research.

I was told the independent apartments are $2700.00 a month but there is a waiting list for them, and there is no medical assistance provided.

The inside studio apartments are $3061.00 a month; and limited medical assistance can be provided if necessary.

Then there are also semi-private rooms that are $143.00 a day or $4443.00 a month.

Now any of these rooms can be private pay or if the person qualifies for Medicaid they can get assistance in paying for the room.  To qualify for the Medicaid assistance program the individual must make less income than $2000.00 a month. The individual can not have more than $2000.00 in an account. The individual can own Term life insurance policies that pay out Atty the time of their death, but they can not own a life insurance policy that has cash value; an example would be a Whole Life policy. The individual can also own a burial policy to take care of burial expenses. If the individual owns a Medicare Supplement Plan it is suggested they keep it.

You are probably wondering what happens if the person does not meet these qualifications.  Well, they have to "spend-down."  I will be talking more about this as I gain more understanding, but it basically means the government looks at your accounts and determines if you qualify for Medicaid. It used to be the government would do a five year look back into the accounts, to see if the person qualifies. For every $20,000 in the accounts there was a $5000 penalty that would have to be paid before Medicaid would kick in.  However, I heard today it may have increased to a ten year look back. I am looking into this though.

If you have not yet taken care of your accounts, expenses, Trust accounts, now is the time you do it. You can even consider a Long Term Care insurance policy to help pay for the cost of nursing home expenses.