We’re an elder law firm that deals with traditional planning as well as crisis planning. And a big way to handle crisis planning is through certain benefit programs, mainly the Medicaid system. Medicaid can help cover for home healthcare, assisted living, all the way up to skilled care. But Medicaid is a needs-based program.
I always say it’s a three-part test: You have to have an illness, you can’t have too much income, and unfortunately you can’t have too many resources. Now, people are constantly told on the computer that you have to spend everything down to almost nothing. You’ll see the $2,000 number all over the internet. Well, that is Ohio’s preference. And they will let you spend all the way down to nothing if you don’t know the rules. Our job is to be on equal footing. And we have to know what resources are exempt and what resources are exposed.
If you have a healthy spouse, there’s a significant amount of resources that are exempt. That’s where you hear the house can be protected, car can be protected, some insurance, some money, some income. They should not force the healthy spouse to spend everything down to nothing. Then if you have children, there can be exemptions there With dependents. Disabled children are exemptions. Children who are provided a certain amount of care for you can serve as an exemption. It’s just like your CPA at tax time; you have to know the rules as well as Ohio. And our job is to pull out all of your deductions. That’s why you hear the different stories, “Why did so-and-so get to keep the home and so-and-so had to sell the home?”
And then there are certain formulas and laws that allow you to protect assets even within the five-year period. Everybody looks at the five-year period like a punishment period; it’s not. I don’t care who you are and what you do, everybody who goes to Ohio and asks for help is put through a five-year audit. That’s all it is. It’s called the look back. It simply gives Ohio to right to look back for five years and ask any question they want. If you don’t do something they like within that five years, they do get to penalize you. But we know the answer to the test, we know the consequence, so you can still protect assets within that five years and gain eligibility, you just have to know the rules. Please seek advice with an elder law attorney who you trust. They should help you through that process.