{"id":17248,"date":"2015-07-09T14:06:51","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T18:06:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/07\/plan-now-for-future-health-care.html"},"modified":"2015-07-09T14:06:51","modified_gmt":"2015-07-09T18:06:51","slug":"plan-now-for-future-health-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/2015\/07\/plan-now-for-future-health-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Report: Plan Now For Future Health Care"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"img-left\">\n<div><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"debra verni c.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saratoga.com\/saratogabusinessjournal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/48\/2015\/07\/debra20verni20c.jpg\" class=\"alignleft\" height=\"229\" width=\"150\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"img-caption\">Debra Verni is a principal of the Herzog Law Firm in Saratoga Springs\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>BY DEBRA VERNI<\/p>\n<p>Many couples, in their golden years, find<br \/>\nthemselves wondering: What if one or both of<br \/>\nthem is admitted into a nursing home and needs<br \/>\nMedicaid?<\/p>\n<p>After saving throughout their lives, they are<br \/>\nfearful that if one of them enters a nursing home,<br \/>\nthey will have to exhaust their life savings to<br \/>\npay for the cost of care before they can become<br \/>\neligible for Medicaid. The average nursing home<br \/>\ncost is $13,000 per month, which translates to<br \/>\n$156,000 per year. Don&#8217;t let a nursing home take<br \/>\nall of your hard earned money. If you plan ahead,<br \/>\nthis can be avoided.<\/p>\n<p>Many people draft documents when they are<br \/>\nyoung and never consider reviewing or updating<br \/>\nthem. Some couples with wills drafted in the<br \/>\npast, may not realize that their wills could harm<br \/>\nthem, if they did not consider Medicaid issues<br \/>\nwhen they executed them. This can result in<br \/>\ndevastating consequences.<\/p>\n<p>Sometimes, couples attempt to make an estate<br \/>\nplan where they leave all of their assets to each<br \/>\nother upon the death of the other spouse. These<br \/>\nare sometimes referred to as &#8220;I Love You&#8221; wills.<br \/>\nThis may seem appropriate and easy to do at<br \/>\nthe time, but if the surviving spouse is on the<br \/>\nverge of entering a nursing home and then inherits<br \/>\na large amount of money from the deceased<br \/>\nspouse, the surviving spouse may not be eligible<br \/>\nfor Medicaid, or even worse if the surviving<br \/>\nspouse is already on Medicaid, it may disqualify<br \/>\nthem from receiving their benefits. Such an estate<br \/>\nplan could result in an unintentionally difficult<br \/>\nsituation for the surviving spouse.<\/p>\n<p>You can protect your assets by using a trust.<br \/>\nThere are trusts that can be used to help applicants<br \/>\nqualify for Medicaid or to prevent estate<br \/>\nrecovery of certain assets. Trusts can also prove<br \/>\nuseful in preventing individuals who are already<br \/>\nreceiving public benefits from losing them.<\/p>\n<p>An applicant who exceeds the income limit<br \/>\nmay still qualify for benefits, provided all income<br \/>\nin excess of the income limit is placed into a<br \/>\ncertain type of trust (sometimes called a &#8220;pooled&#8221;<br \/>\ntrust) each month.<\/p>\n<p>The law related to Medicaid eligibility is<br \/>\ncomplex and there may be other estate planning<br \/>\ntechniques you can use. These are only some of<br \/>\nthe issues. Speak with an attorney about the<br \/>\npotential steps you must take and the documents<br \/>\nyou must execute to protect your assets when<br \/>\ncontemplating future Medicaid coverage.<\/p>\n<p>Verni is a principal of the Herzog Law Firm in<br \/>\nSaratoga Springs.<\/p>\n<p>Photo Courtesy Herzog Law Firm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> Debra Verni is a principal of the Herzog Law Firm in Saratoga Springs BY DEBRA VERNI Many couples, in their golden years, find themselves wondering: What if one or both of them is admitted into a nursing home and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[58,70],"class_list":["post-17248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-reports","tag-business-reports","tag-financial"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - 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