Should a social worker help me with the Medicaid application?

The NH should have given you a list of items required. My mom's NH was 1 page and my MIL was 2 pages - same state too. It seems each NH can word the items differently but in general this is what they want:

1. Their annual SS statement. This is mailed out each January and shows what they are getting paid. The NH wants this to find out how much co-pay your mom has. The statement is a trifold form with those pull the tabs on the sides toopen. If you can't find it,you can go on SS site to get also.
2. Their annual retirement statement - most retirement programs do this and the form is similar to the SS one. Again NH needs to see what the co-pay is and it's based on this.
3. Any and all insurance policies. This is to determine if the policy is a term or whole life insurance policy. If it is whole then it will have a cash value, which means it can be cashed in for the value at the time of cashing it in. Oh and the lnsurance company can add fees and charges for you to do this too. Medicaid fully expects your mom to cash in such a cash value policy and use it in toto on her care or her needs. If it is term, then you need to read to see who "owns" the policy. If mom owns her own policy then you have to report it. BUT if she doesn't then you don't.

For me, having them not owning their term policy is the single easiet thing to do - now it will take about 60 - 90 days from when you file to change ownership with the life insurance company and there may be fees to pay for all this but well worth it. WHen our son was born, my mom changed her policy from her ownership to being his (with us being named as administer). This is easy but takes time which you may not have. My mom still has a small term policy of about $ 1,500.00 which is OK for Medicaid, so nothing needed to be done regarding the disposition of her policy after death. You'll need to look at your mom's term policy and see what the amount is and then how much it is over what the state allows. Your state will then tell you what needs to happen with the term policy.

4. If she still owns property - like a home, car or land - and it is in her name and ID with her SS# or her address, then you will need to have whatever is the current value for each. For real property, that will be in the county assessors office and you should be able to go on-line and find it and download the report for a small amount. Alternatively you can go through their mail like from October/Nov of last year and look for the letters sent out by state/county assessor's office for the taxes due Jan/Feb of the following year. This will state the value, the state Medicaid program will require this information. Now if you can't find it, believe me the state will know it as it's in their system. But if you provide it, it cuts down on the waiting for stuff downtime in the evaluation.

Now it's my opinion, that you are best off by coming into the situation with all the paperwork all nice and copied at Kinko's/Fed Ex with every page done. My mom's application was just over 100 pages (mainly due to her old school insurance policies which ran about 20 - 30 pages each, legal, front & back side). You want the caseworker to be able to go through the checklist in 1 single sitting.

5. Bank records. This will depend on the state but most seem to want the last 3 months of each and every bank account statement. (My mom's was 6 months) If there are CD or other stuff like that then the agreement on the CD too (which is like 2 - 4 pages). If they have a safe deposit box, just ignore that. Now here is where the state programs seem to differ. For my mom, I had to provide a notarized letter from each and every banking institution as to the disposition of any and all account closed within the last 3 years. For us, it was easy as I had streamlined mom's stuff and got her down to a single bank and all her accounts and CD's as they expired all went into a single chekcing account. This took about a full morning at the bank. So if yours has 3 different banks, you will have to provide for info for the last 3 or more months for each and every account. If she has joint accounts, this could get sticky as to who's $$ is who's. But the key is her SS number, as only those account that have her SS # on them, will show in the system.

6. Funeral & burial - they will want front & back on all these contracts. They need to be NCV - No Cash Value - type of policy. So you need to read for that. If it is a cash conversion policy, then you have to cash it in and spend-down on her care with the $$ or you might be able to switch it to a NCV policy. The funeral home will know how to do this. Seems funeral/burial stuff needs to be under 10K in value for Medicaid to accept it. But I bet that varies by state.

Again, if you can have it so that all the information is copied and done as a single big document so it can be evaluated in a single session.

Also there is a whole Medicaid medical review done on the applicant. It sounds like that part is going to be OK as they have alot of medical needs documented by hospitial stays, etc. so should not be an issue. Good luck and try to keep a sense of humor as you'll need it.

Your social worker should be able to help you with this applicatio or someone at father's current facility or the one he will be going to.

Thank you. The situation is this way: He has to leave the short term place because they dont except medicaid patients. He most likely will have to come home again, with minimal medicare homecare like the last time, only he is progressively worse now. The home I prefer is full as of now, but he is on a wait list, and the other one, not sure of yet. They both accept Medicaid Pending patients. As of now, the sooner I get the app in the better, just doesnt look too promising for dad. Worse case scenario is he falls, or something is going to happen at home, and back to the hospital, and here we go again. Funny, I spoke to his doctor, and bluntly asked if he could "pull some strings"for me, but he told me he could not, and secondly, I left a message with their social worker and she never called me back. Guess I will have to TRY again, as usual.

I hesitate to say this but if dad has to return to the hospital "refuse" to take him home. The hospital will soon find him a bed in a nursing home to free up their acute bed. As far as the social worker is concerned plant yourself in her office and refusee to move. Keep it civil but take plenty to occupy yourself and a snack.
Remind the receptionist you are there every 20 minutes and don't leave till you are seen or get an appointment and not for three months down the road.

OK, I'm confused, is dad in a hospital about to be discharged OR is he in a facility on the rehab days after discharge from the hospital????

There are 2 different ways I'd approach it depending on which above.
If he's in the hospital, than Veronica's suggestion is terrific. As she said they will have to find a place for him

But If it's the latter (he's in a rehab place), then he is currently having his bill being
paid for by Medicare. MediCARE pays about 21 days for rehab and can pay more if MD requires it and they meet the rehab criteria. If your dad can meet the criteria to stay on rehab, Medicare will continure to pay but you have to meet the co-pay. There is a whole federal formula on how this is done. The Criteria is pretty strict, so if they are too demented or too weak to do the PT,OT tasks, then they get discharged from rehab and therefore from the rehab facility.

I've done medicaid app for my mom and helped by DH with the ones (yes more than 1 had to be done as more than 1 state), so what are the confusing parts?