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My aunt is in a nursing home, I have spent year selling her house ect. Aunt has been in nursing home for a year private pay now trying to work with nursing home to get her medicaid as she has spent down. I have been doing everything from finding a home for her cats to selling her house. Am i entitled to ask for or pay myself a small fee for all this work.She had no children and a widow.She needs long term care,i have P.O.A. do her laundry visit her 3 time a week to make sure she has what needs and wants. The stress of having to be her voice. Things that the nursing home told me according to medicaid are not true. Example for a year i drove 150 miles round trip to take care of her house mow the grass get her house ready to sell and sold it in one month i made 15 trips. Medicaid said i was not entitled to put gas in my car or eat lunch using her debit card. I am very stressed out that they may want me to pay back what i spent around $2000.00. I am on a fixed income also they make me feel like I'm a thief. There was no one else to do what needed to be done. Help we live in kansas. What i did was for her benefit not mine. Thank you for your time.

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I understand you were acting in her interest. Medicaid tends to take the position that if there isn't a written agreement that your aunt will pay you for services then the services must be a gift. It is too bad that you did not consult a lawyer who specializes in Elder Law before this started and have it set up to avoid Medicaid problems, but better late than never. Consult such an attorney now to help you out of this mess.
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Although it is understandable why you would want to and commendable for you to have done all that you have done for your aunt, I don't think medicaid would look favorably upon you claiming any of the money from selling her house. You can't pay yourself for the work you do as someone's POA. Medicaid looks back over five years and considers any gifting as money that needs to be paid back for the person's care. You are not a thief. You just made a mistake, a costly one.
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The viewpoint is that whatever you do for your aunt is done out of a sense of family duty and for free UNLESS you have a written agreement or contract. At this late point in time there could be the the possibility of you placing a workman's lien on the property but whether that is possible depends on what your state requires for that type of lien. The lien would need to be paid in order for the act of sale to go through as it "clouds" the title.

Have you already done Aunties' Medicaid application? If not, and she still has income (like the proceeds from the sale) I'd get an appointment with an elder lawyer (paid for by aunt's $) to see what if any options are out there for you.

About the POA being paid, it could happen. If you are a professional and what you do for your elder are things that you in your regular work or business get paid for, then you can "charge" for your service at the same rate you would do for your other clients. So if your a CPA and do her taxes, you can invoice her just as you would do for others & report it in taxes, etc.
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Thank you to all who responded just getting this off my chest helped alot. Asking the professional's at the nursing home failed to give me the correct guidance a year ago,when this all began.I should have known better and got a second opinion.I will make this right and keep on doing what is best for my aunt.Thank you
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