Are You Prepared for Long-Term Care Costs?

With nursing home costs often exceeding $120,000 per year, planning for Long-Term Care costs is vital. Attorney Justin Randall appears on Local 5 Live to explain the value of working with an Elder Law Attorney, when you should start planning, and how to navigate applying and qualifying for Medicaid.

Lisa Malak
With nursing home costs in Wisconsin often exceeding $120,000 annually, people in need of Long-Term Care are seeking options for affordable care.

Millaine Wells
Medicaid is one option to help individuals, but the application and qualification process can be somewhat cumbersome. So Attorney Justin Randall from Hooper Law Office is joining us today to share some tips in applying for Medicaid. Good morning to you.

Justin Randall
Good morning.

Millaine Wells
Well, what is the first step viewers should take if they need to apply?

Justin Randall
So first thing they should look into is contacting an Elder Law Attorney to help them with that application process. After they've reached out to an Elder Law Attorney, it would be really important, and helpful for that attorney, for them to compile a lot of statements for their financial assets. Just even a list of it can help because you have to inform Medicaid of all of these things when you're applying.

Lisa Malak
I know a common question is whether people need to sell their home in order to qualify for Medicaid. Yeah. And so it really you don't have to actually sell your home to qualify for Medicaid, whether you're single or married, though they will allow you to keep the home. But if you're single, they can place a lean on it over time as they provide care. But a married couple, if one of the spouses is living at home still, they do not have to sell the home and can continue to live in it.

Millaine Wells
Let's talk about keeping in mind for Long-Term Care, because Medicaid is one component of that. But the long term care piece is sort of the second half of the puzzle.

Justin Randall
Yeah. So Medicaid is one way to help pay for Long-Term Care. You know, in a nursing home or assisted living. But we also encourage people to look into Long-Term Care insurance as an option to pay for care. And if they're looking to help supplement that care after they're started or receive Medicaid, they can talk to an Elder Law Attorney to help them find ways to do that as well.

Lisa Malak
Outside of the seminars that you have coming up, how can Hooper Law Office help us and walk us through that process of applying for Medicaid?

Justin Randall
Yeah. So when somebody is looking to apply for Medicaid with our office, you know, we sit down with the family initially and talk through, you know, what's the health situation for the spouse or spouses that are going into care, what is the financial situation? And then we can give them a pretty good picture of here's what that's going to look like for you. And also, here's what you might be able to protect for yourself and, you know, keep for your family going forward.

Lisa Malak
So if you anticipate needing Medicare down the road or is there something you should do right now to prepare for that?

Justin Randall
Yeah, first and foremost, if you anticipate ever needing any type of Long-Term Care, it's really important while you still can to get good Powers of Attorney in place, because if you don't have, you know, a well-drafted, robust Financial Power of Attorney in particular, there might be limited options for you and your family if you lose capacity when that time comes to apply.

Millaine Wells
And important to remember, it's not one size fits all. What works for Family A is completely different than Family B?

Justin Randall
Absolutely. And there's a lot of bad advice online that you'll see of, you know, necessarily put the home in the kid's name. That's always the best bet. And, you know, that may work for some people, but there can be a lot of pitfalls with that, too. And so it's really important to make sure people are getting good advice before they do any of that planning.

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