 |
 |
Several messages have dealt with nursing homes and, inevitably, their costs. My recent personal experiences may sound an alarm: Look into your financial plans immediately! At the very least, there may still be time to make sure that you or your PWP qualify for NH care at $1,495 per month, even if the estate (or you) eventually have to pay the entire bill. We face the alternative -- selling my father's house and exhausting his resources at a cost of more than $4,000 per month before he becomes eligible for medicaid. Unless the house sells quickly, we will have to meet the monthly bills out of our own emergency savings until it does. Even then, the house equity will be exhausted in less than two years. Dad had a revocable trust set up by a lawyer friend (who urged him to get a specialist in elder law, but without effect). He made no effort to see that the trust met the much more stringent requirements when the Medicaid program was revised, not long ago. He seems to have planned on a quick death -- he did have a Living Will and a durable power of attorney -- but never thought about the hazards of an everyday fall which resulted in the need for long-term custodial care. He is 85, but does not have Parkinson's. But I am posting his story because it almost exactly parallels the path ahead for many PWPs. He took a fall last month and tried to brush it off, refusing to go to the hospital for four days. During that time, he developed two subdural hematomas and the pressure resulted in irreparable brain damage. The details are not important, but the message is. FIND AN EXPERT IN ELDER LAW AND REVIEW YOUR OPTIONS, BOTH FOR YOUR PRESENT STATE OF RESIDENCE AND FOR ANY OTHER STATE TO WHICH YOUR CHILDREN MIGHT MOVE YOU TO. There is a National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, and your attorney may list memberships and specialties in his Yellow Pages ad. I found "How to protect your life savings from catastrophic illness," Harley Gordon, 1997, Financial Strategies Press, Inc., 15 Broad St. #700, Boston, MA, to be very useful. It is widely used in seminars set up by salesmen for nursing home insurance. I have no connection with Mr. Gordon or any insurance company. Good luck! Bob Bishop [log in to unmask]