My mom, 96, is presently paying for her own care in an adult care home at a big expense. She only has money to stay for a year and has already been there 3 mos.
We switched her from my brother's house to the adult care home because she needed 24/7 care but medically she is in great shape. Some dementia and incontinence and is in a wheelchair. Can't do anything herself but has no major health issues.
We planned to move her to a nursing home after that because the adult home doesn't take Medicaid. I don't know when to start the process of getting her onto Medicaid or if she will be accepted into a nursing home once she is out of money. No one in the family can care for her anymore. Is it better to look for a place to take her now, or wait until the year is almost up and then make a change? This will be very hard on her anyway, but with the Covid restrictions we didn't want to just move her from seeing everyone to seeing no one. Now people can visit. But I would like to be able to pick a nice nursing home and I'm not sure that will be possible if she has no money left.
Anybody have any ideas to make this a smooth transition and as painless as possible? She loves where she is now and I hate to move her again but I think it will be inevitable. I live in NY State.
With my Mom, I took what was left of her money and paid privately in a a nice NH. That spent her money down. I started in April with the application. Placed Mom May 1st. This gave me the time to get info needed. I confirmed in June that the caseworker had all he needed and Medicaid started July 1st.
If she has enough money to stay in the NH for 3 mos., I was told, then they would probably accept her and let her do a spend down at the NH and then go on Medicaid. It sounds like your mom was in a nice place and then moved to another place where Medicaid kicked in. Am I reading that correctly? She didn't have to do the spend down at the second nursing home for awhile before they took her?
I would look at places nearby if you don’t like driving far but don’t let distance be the only determining factor.
Look for a place that suits your mom’s needs best.
Ask the Social Worker, if there is one for recommendations for other facilities in the area that will accept Medicaid. (Often a facility will "find" an opening if the referral is coming from another facility.)
Also start touring on your own and when you find a place you like also ask them if they can help with the process.