No, neither NH or AL is interested in taking your home. Neither are in the real estate biz. They want to be paid $ for your stay. AL almost always are private pay; NH can be paid by private pay, LTC insurance or State LTC Medicaid program if NH participates & has open beds.
I think you may be getting tales of Medicaid Estate recovery program overlapping with concerns on what to do with your home.
What will happen should you be at the point of being “at need” for care in a NH and without $ to pay for it, usually is that you file for Alabama LTC Medicaid program. Almost always you are in a NH at the time, usually you have gotten there as a post hospitalization patient sent to the NH for rehab; and then it’s determined you cannot really go back to your home so become a long term care resident at the NH & file for LTC Medicaid to pay for it as you have no $. Medicaid is a huge # of programs and it’s the Long Term Care one that pays for custodial care 24/7 day rate for an individual in a facility. Most States only do LTC Medicaid for payments in a NH aka a skilled nursing care facility. But some States will also pay for MC and a few for AL but it’s on you to find out what’s what and how you can be eligible.
When you file for LTC Medicaid, it will have a lookback of 5 years on your financial history needed to accompany your application (for most states). So anything you did from date of the application back 5 years that could involved gifting or transferring of assets will be an issue for your LTC Medicaid application and has to be actions allowed by Medicaid. Or you get a transfer penalty.
If you are needing a NH asap, you don’t have time. That ship has sailed.
But if you have years, you can decide what path to take. I think that for most of us, this is not a DIY but you & Sonny need to speak with an CELA level of atty who understands just what AL Medicaid does, especially their approach for estate recovery.
For most elders things of value by this time are a car & a home because they have had to spend down to get to the point of impoverishment to be at the $2,000 nonexempt asset point for an individual LTC Medicaid. HOWEVER both home & a car are 100% exempt assets for LTC Medicaid AND you can continue to own them EVEN ONCE you go into a NH. BUT there will be a problem in doing this because you will be required to do a copy of basically almost all your monthly income (your SS, other retirements) as a required by Medicaid copay to the NH. So home can still be owned by you - now in the NH- but you won’t have $ to pay costs, like taxes, insurance etc.
Whomever you’re hoping will inherit it kinda needs to pay all property costs & deal with whatever attempt (lien or claim) of Estate Recovery that Alabama does after you die. Could be years from now. If Son does not have $ realistically to do this, this plan will not work. OR decision made to sell the home. You get onto LTC Medicaid but house put up for sale. The house - as owned by you - so once sold all the $ is yours so gets used to pay for your stay. Depending on how AL does LTC Medicaid, they may want you to repay those months that Medicaid paid too. Ya can’t really gift any of this $ as you likely need it to pay for your care. Plus Medicaid knows all about it OR decision made to title house in a Trust or Life Estate or gifted to Son and hopefully you don’t file for LTC Medicaid till Winter 2028.
I get it, you would like to leave house to your son. You can do that. Nobody can stop you from doing that. It’s your property to decide what to do with. Issue will be WHETHER there five (5) years between when you do title transfer and do a filing for LTC Medicaid, and IF you & Sonny are willing to take the risks associated with doing this. Whatever the case, please speak with an elder law attorney to see what your action means for Alabama LTC Medicaid beforehand.
I am assuming that you mean that the patient is on medicaid, and you want to know if the patient's home will face "recovery" from medicaid.
The answer is almost certainly yes. The executor or administrator will receive a letter enumerating costs. The estate of a dead person stands to pay creditors and bills. In this case, the taxpayers are owed what can be recovered from the estate before distribution to heirs.
If YOU are the person handling all this I suggest you work with a Trust and Estate attorney and I wish you the very best.
If you go into assisted living, why would u not sell your home to help pay for your care.
Same with a NH. Yes, if on Medicaid its exempt as long as ur alive. Once you pass, family members will need to sell it to satisfy the lien that will be put on it. The only way this does not happen, is if there is a Community Spouse or a family member lived in ur home to care for you for 2 yrs. But even then, when they pass the lien will still be there to be satisfied.
Assisted living, by the way, does not normally take Medicaid. Its private pay. Some do after paying privately at least 2 yrs. But, it seems ALs are backing out of allowing Medicaid.
If you think you can go 5 yrs without needing Medicaid, then u may want to look into a Trust to protect it.
NO they cannot take a person's home. This is unfortunately a very common misconception. If a person is on Medicaid they are allowed to retain their personal residence while they are alive, but there would likely be a lien placed on it by the state's Medicaid program so that funds expended for that person can be paid back, insofar as possible, when the house is sold after their death. It's called "estate recovery." However it's important to know that the person on Medicaid will not have enough income to pay for the upkeep on the house, taxes, utilities etc. They are required to pay all but a small amount of their monthly income to the facility for their monthly charges and Medicaid pays the difference. Unless there is a strong reason to keep the home, and family willing to pay for it, the better course of action is to sell the home so ther person can pay privately for as long as possible before applying for Medicaid. If there is still a spouse living in the home, called the "community spouse," and the home is jointly owned it's a different situation. Best course of action would to check with Medicaid in the state where the person resides as individual circumstances vary so much.
No, facilities don't have that kind of power. Even Medicaid doesn't "take" anyone's home... they just put a lien on it that needs to be satisfied at time of sale.
Do you live in the home that you're worried about the patient losing? If so, you have some rights and protection.
I think you may be getting tales of Medicaid Estate recovery program overlapping with concerns on what to do with your home.
What will happen should you be at the point of being “at need” for care in a NH and without $ to pay for it, usually is that you file for Alabama LTC Medicaid program. Almost always you are in a NH at the time, usually you have gotten there as a post hospitalization patient sent to the NH for rehab; and then it’s determined you cannot really go back to your home so become a long term care resident at the NH & file for LTC Medicaid to pay for it as you have no $. Medicaid is a huge # of programs and it’s the Long Term Care one that pays for custodial care 24/7 day rate for an individual in a facility. Most States only do LTC Medicaid for payments in a NH aka a skilled nursing care facility. But some States will also pay for MC and a few for AL but it’s on you to find out what’s what and how you can be eligible.
When you file for LTC Medicaid, it will have a lookback of 5 years on your financial history needed to accompany your application (for most states). So anything you did from date of the application back 5 years that could involved gifting or transferring of assets will be an issue for your LTC Medicaid application and has to be actions allowed by Medicaid. Or you get a transfer penalty.
If you are needing a NH asap, you don’t have time. That ship has sailed.
But if you have years, you can decide what path to take. I think that for most of us, this is not a DIY but you & Sonny need to speak with an CELA level of atty who understands just what AL Medicaid does, especially their approach for estate recovery.
For most elders things of value by this time are a car & a home because they have had to spend down to get to the point of impoverishment to be at the $2,000 nonexempt asset point for an individual LTC Medicaid. HOWEVER both home & a car are 100% exempt assets for LTC Medicaid AND you can continue to own them EVEN ONCE you go into a NH. BUT there will be a problem in doing this because you will be required to do a copy of basically almost all your monthly income (your SS, other retirements) as a required by Medicaid copay to the NH. So home can still be owned by you - now in the NH- but you won’t have $ to pay costs, like taxes, insurance etc.
Whomever you’re hoping will inherit it kinda needs to pay all property costs & deal with whatever attempt (lien or claim) of Estate Recovery that Alabama does after you die. Could be years from now. If Son does not have $ realistically to do this, this plan will not work.
OR
decision made to sell the home. You get onto LTC Medicaid but house put up for sale. The house - as owned by you - so once sold all the $ is yours so gets used to pay for your stay. Depending on how AL does LTC Medicaid, they may want you to repay those months that Medicaid paid too. Ya can’t really gift any of this $ as you likely need it to pay for your care. Plus Medicaid knows all about it
OR
decision made to title house in a Trust or Life Estate or gifted to Son and hopefully you don’t file for LTC Medicaid till Winter 2028.
I get it, you would like to leave house to your son. You can do that. Nobody can stop you from doing that. It’s your property to decide what to do with. Issue will be WHETHER there five (5) years between when you do title transfer and do a filing for LTC Medicaid, and IF you & Sonny are willing to take the risks associated with doing this. Whatever the case, please speak with an elder law attorney to see what your action means for Alabama LTC Medicaid beforehand.
I am assuming that you mean that the patient is on medicaid, and you want to know if the patient's home will face "recovery" from medicaid.
The answer is almost certainly yes. The executor or administrator will receive a letter enumerating costs. The estate of a dead person stands to pay creditors and bills. In this case, the taxpayers are owed what can be recovered from the estate before distribution to heirs.
If YOU are the person handling all this I suggest you work with a Trust and Estate attorney and I wish you the very best.
Same with a NH. Yes, if on Medicaid its exempt as long as ur alive. Once you pass, family members will need to sell it to satisfy the lien that will be put on it. The only way this does not happen, is if there is a Community Spouse or a family member lived in ur home to care for you for 2 yrs. But even then, when they pass the lien will still be there to be satisfied.
Assisted living, by the way, does not normally take Medicaid. Its private pay. Some do after paying privately at least 2 yrs. But, it seems ALs are backing out of allowing Medicaid.
If you think you can go 5 yrs without needing Medicaid, then u may want to look into a Trust to protect it.
Do you live in the home that you're worried about the patient losing? If so, you have some rights and protection.