Mother lived with daughter 9 years and no written agreement was ever thought of. Spending down her assets for nursing home care. Helped pay household expenses of food, utilities and mortgage payment.
Also care and needs. How does Medicaid perceive the monthly payments for these expenses? 97 years old with reasonable contributions for live in care for 9 years.
Mom did Mortgage payments? That will imo be an issue.
Ok so was this done by your mom actually writing a check to mortgage company? So there is going to be cancelled checks or online payments in her bank statements from 2017 to now that read “Wells Fargo” or “Rocket Mortgage” or whatever name of your mortgage servicer is? For more fun in this, was loan # written on cks?
If so, this imo will be an issue and her LTC Medicaid application will be red flagged. So gets kicked up past initial caseworker to their supervisor or regional. And they will look in detail for other things that seem hinkey and will run an inquiry on state database of real property records tied to moms name & SS# as well as her deceased husband. Easy keystrokes by Medicaid to do.
Mom does not own a home, her name is not on title or tax assessor bills, so really should not be paying for things property owner is responsible for….. like mortgage, homeowners insurance, repairs (like she wrote a check for Fred’s Plumbing, Rios Roofing). Doing this looks like “gifting”. It’s not her paying “a share of costs of living” in your home or rent paid to you based on a % of her space. It’s paying for property costs outright. That’s a hard no by Medicaid.
Once gifting inquiry starts, what probably will happen is Medicaid will want in detail what all checks $500 or over were for and can ask for receipts. One sticky when this kind of stuff happens is that Medicaid will want the info and it’s documentation in days. Like 7 or 14 days, and if not, then application closed for noncompliance. Too bad, so sad.
IMO please please pls do not try to DIY her LTC Medicaid application. Find and have mom get a elder law attorney who is experienced in LTC Medicaid application and have them shepherd her filing as they can hopefully smooth all this out. Get it done this month. Also no more of these type of checks anymore….. ever.
Medicaid does not expect elders to live on air. They expect & r ok with an elder paying “a share of cost” of a living situation to you or paying rent to you. Like 4 in the house, mom pays 1/4 of monthly costs.
Also just in case you were not aware….. if your mom goes into a NH and goes onto LTC Medicaid - from the day she files her application- Medicaid will require her to do a copay of almost all her mo income (like her SS $) to the NH. All she will be able to keep is a Personal Needs Allowance which ranges from $35-$110 a mo. Most States have PNA at $50 or $60 and realistically enough to pay for the on-site beauty shoppe and some toiletries replacement. Her PNA has to be spent on her own needs and person. If you have needed for moms SSA or her other retirement income to keep your household costs afloat, that $ will NOT be there ever again. If this is your situation, and you simply have to have her income to make ends meet, you might want to rethink her going into a facility. Like maybe look to see if she could be eligible for a community based Medicaid program for inhome caregivers for her, as community based Medicaid does not have the almost total income copay requirement.
Also please realize mom being old, w/some dementia & needing help with things, may not - NOT - be enough to be “at need” medically for care in a skilled nursing care facility. Most LTC Medicaid programs are only for SNF aka NH level of care. Not AL or MC. If mom has been living at home for years and seeing her MD twice a year, her health chart probably not going to show need for skilled. I’d suggest she gets a needs assessment done before you blithely plan on her being ok to enter a NH. If she were to apply for community based Medicaid in home, they will send out an assessment team to evaluate her. Good luck in all this!