Determining Your Need and Potential Options for Long-Term Care

Long-term care addresses needs people have once they become elderly or disabled. The time to begin planning for these needs is when you are young and before you suffer a disability. Medicaid planning offers strategies to help you offset these costs and to preserve your assets for your heirs, regardless of your current age. While there is no way to see into the future to determine what your exact future needs will be, planning ahead can help assess your risks, while exploring the options which may be available.

Long-Term Care and Who Is Likely to Need It

The Family Caregiver Alliance advises that long-term care is used when a person suffers from a chronic condition, an illness, injury, or some other type of trauma. As a result, they may have trouble performing certain daily tasks. These are divided into two categories:

• Activities of Daily Living (ADL): This includes basic living tasks, such as eating, bathing, dressing, and going to the bathroom by yourself.

• instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs): This involves performing household tasks, such as cleaning, meal preparation, and managing money.

Long-term care is not the same as medical care. It differs in that the goal is not to cure an illness or condition, but to help the individual maintain their optimum level of functioning.

Of the more than 12 million Americans who eventually require long-term care, more than 1.3 million receive it through a nursing home. Other options include residential care or assisted living communities, adult day care centers, home health agencies, and hospice services. You can get a general idea of what your future requirements might be based on your family health history, your current health, and your living situation.

Evaluating Choices In Long-Term and Medical Care

According to the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS), roughly half of all people over the age of 65 will eventually require nursing home care, at a cost of up to $150,000 per year. Remaining at home while receiving home health care is significantly less expensive. It does require the support of friends or family members, and even part-time can run up to $20,000 or more.

Medicare and insurance generally do not cover these costs. To avoid dipping into your savings and your children’s inheritance, you generally have two options:

• Buying long term care insurance. Available at group and individual rates, you are likely to pay high monthly premiums in order to get a portion of your expenses covered.

• Planning so you will become eligible for Medicaid. By placing your assets in a Medicaid trust, you may be eligible for complete coverage of nursing home, home health care, and others types of community care services.

To find out more about Medicaid planning and how it could benefit you and your loved ones, call or contact Cavallo & Cavallo online and request a free consultation with our New York asset protection attorneys in our Bronx or Westchester office today.

Resources:

caregiver.org/selected-long-term-care-statistics

dfs.ny.gov/consumer/ltc/ltc_guide.pdf