A New Way to Avoid the Nursing Home

There is a little-known way for some people in certain states to receive home care through Medicaid, without requiring them to impoverish themselves first. Here’s how it works: a federal law established in 1993 allows disabled people to put their monthly income or assets — above the amounts Medicaid allows them to keep — into a special type of pooled trust. They can then use the money in the trust to pay for their basic monthly bills like rent, a mortgage payment or cable television. Medicaid, meanwhile, pays for the home care.

Full article on pooled trusts here.

Comments (3)

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  1. Devon Herrick says:

    A Miller Trust can also be used to supplement a disabled person’s needs and provide a few extra dollars each month to cover supplies not covered by Medicaid. The Partnership Program is also a way to shelter some assets while insuring against long term care needs.

  2. Brian Williams. says:

    If I understand this right, the law allows Medicaid beneficiaries to deposit their assets into a non-profit trust, then draw from that trust to pay living expenses, while taxpayers pay for the Medicaid home care bills?

    As a taxpayer, I’m not sure whether this is good or bad.

  3. rolando says:

    IF YOU have medical ianurnsce on yourself, while pregnant, just go to the HR dept at work, and add the child as a dependant. You can fill out the paperwork now, and when the child is born, you ask them to submit the paperwork. It’s no big deal. We got a medical ianurnsce card for my son within 4 weeks of his birth.