Articles Tagged with New York Medicaid attorney

A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation examining current and projected trends for out of pocket expenses related to care provided by Medicare found the country’s elders and those living with disabilities can expect those payments to increase. Those out of pocket expenses include health care services such as insurance premiums, deductibles, cost sharing for Medicare-covered services, as well as spending on services not covered by Medicare, such as long-term services and supports and dental care.

The study assessed the current and projected out of pocket expenses for those receiving Medicare benefits by averaging out of pocket spending relative to Social Security income and then estimating increases over the next several years. What the study found was that older Americans can expect to pay much more in out of pocket expenses as a share of their social security income over the next 12-years.

In 2013, Americans receiving Medicare benefits paid on average 41 percent of their Social Security income to out of pocket expenses not covered by the program, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation report. Those costs are expected to climb as high as 50-percent by 2030 and may affect women 85-years and older especially hard.

RULE OF HALVES

Many people find themselves going into nursing homes earlier than expected and without the appropriate planning.  Things happen in life to derail our best laid or thought out plans.  With more and more elderly Americans living longer, the need for nursing home care is increasing and will continue to increase indefinitely.  Whenever someone does not properly plan for going into a nursing home, often their personal funds will be the basis upon which they will pay for their nursing home care.  Certainly, there are those amongst us who purchase long term care insurance but for the majority of us, we rely on utilizing Medicare or private insurance or some combination of the two.  

This is a misconception, insofar as the most that Medicare will pay for is 20 days for full nursing home care and up to 80 days partial care, for a total of 100 days.  Moreover, this stay must be preceded by a three day hospital stay.  Any more time in the nursing home requires that the patient either pay through private insurance or by private pay.  Granted entry into a nursing home often comes as a surprise to many, but for those who have an idea that they may have to enter into a nursing home, they scramble last minute to dispose of their assets with the mistaken belief that they will be able to show to the government that they do not have any assets and are thus eligible for Medicaid, to pay for their further nursing home stay.

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