Today we are going to look at another success story from one of my clients. They are a very nice couple out in west Texas. A wife entered a nursing home and her husband was concerned. How would he get her the care she needed without going broke?Everyone knows you must lose everything before you get Medicaid, right? Well, At the end of this case we successfully protected over $71,000 plus their home. We also got the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to approve her application for Medicaid benefits and cut their nursing home bill. Pretty amazing, right?How did we do it?

What They Started With

When they first contacted me they had the following assets:

• a house worth $106,000,
• about $10,000 in bank accounts,
• $56,000 in a federal retirement plan,
• a couple thousand in cash value life insurance, and
• about $18,000 in multiple vehicles.

They Were Not Millionaires 

They were not millionaires trying to take advantage of anything. All in all this is a pretty typical family trying to survive in a tough economy. Probably similar to your family.

Their combined income was around $2,700.The nursing home bill was coming in at $4,200 every month.They weren’t going to last long losing so much money every month. They needed help and they needed it fast.

A $36,000 Problem

The big problem here is they were way over the nursing home Medicaid asset limit. If they didn’t see me, the Health and Human Services Commission would not give them Medicaid until they were down to $35,362.02. They had over $71,000. That put almost $36,000 in jeopardy through the dreaded Medicaid spend down.

He would have lost the bank accounts. The HHSC would take a big bite out of the retirement life savings he was planning to live on. He probably could have kept the vehicles and the life insurance but all other bets were off. $35,362.02 was all he could have, no exceptions.

If you’ve looked around my site, then you know I don’t believe in putting a family through a spend down. You can do better than that with a Woodlands nursing home Medicaid lawyer.

The Solution

So, we have a couple staring down the financial ruin that accompanies a $36,000 loss. What do you do to help these people?

What we did was restructure $45,000 of their assets. The husband still owned everything in his name and we secured his financial future from certain devastation

Here Is What We Got Them

What about his retirement? Yeah, we helped him protect all of his retirement savings also. Now their life savings is available for them and their family rather than the nursing home or Medicaid Estate Recovery.

Saving $3,600 Every Month

Nursing home asset protection means nothing if you’re still paying $4,200 a month. As part of his Medicaid case, we cut his nursing home bill down to $602 a month. As a result, he ended up saving almost $3,600 every month. That’s big savings right there. He also got to keep all of his monthly income.

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“Got this in the mail today Thank God and thank you”

Enrique 

Let’s Recap

A married couple came to me for help. They had $71,000 plus their home. They were losing $4,200 a month to nursing home bills with no end in sight. The HHSC was looking for a $36,000 spend down before granting Medicaid benefits.

We rearranged some things to transform that $36,000 loss into $71,000 he could keep. His decision to get help from an experienced nursing home Medicaid attorney changed everything.

We saved him $36,000 in a lump sum and $3,600 every month in nursing home bills. Seems like a good decision to me. But I’ll let him speak for himself, here is what he wrote me: “Got this in the mail today Thank God and thank you”.

You know what to do when you’re tired of worrying about the future and want the same relief this gentleman felt.

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Does This Work For Everyone?

These kinds of results are common for cases with a married nursing home resident when you know what you are doing. The strategy described above changes if you are an un-married Medicaid applicant, but great results are still possible whether you’re here in The Woodlands and Houston area or anywhere else in Texas.

Want to Learn Medicaid Asset Protection Secrets?

I’d like to know from you: are you interested in learning Medicaid secrets that can help you protect assets? Do you think a Medicaid divorce is the only option? (sometimes it can be the worst option actually) Have you been looking for answers and just can’t find anything you can use?Let me know your thoughts on this by leaving a comment below. I do read them all.And of course, if there are other topics you think I should discuss , please let me know!