Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Top Harrisburg Medicaid Planning Lawyer
At Keystone Elder Law P.C., our Harrisburg Medicaid planning, asset protection, and elder law attorney is a knowledgeable, reliable, and solutions-focused advocate for clients. If you have any questions about Medicaid planning or asset protection, our legal team is here as a legal resource. Contact us today to set up your confidential initial consultation with an experienced Harrisburg estate planning attorney.
Long-Term Care Costs are a Serious Threat to Your Assets
In Pennsylvania, the cost of long-term care and nursing home costs—which are still rising—pose a major threat to personal assets. As we age, the likelihood of needing such care increases, but many are unprepared for the financial burden it brings. On average, the cost of a private room in a nursing home in Pennsylvania exceeds $100,000 per year. For many families, this expense can rapidly deplete savings and investments that have been accumulated over a lifetime. Without proper planning, you may find your hard-earned assets vulnerable. However, with the right strategies, you can achieve financial freedom despite the high costs.
Medicaid Planning is About Protecting and Preserving Your Assets
There is a government program that helps to cover long-term care/nursing home care costs. However, that program is Medicaid, not Medicare. The distinction matters because Medicaid is a means-tested program. You do not automatically qualify for benefits based on your age. Instead, you must “spend down” your assets before you can qualify for long-term care through Medicaid.
Medicaid planning and asset protection planning are crucial strategies for safeguarding your assets against the high costs of long-term care. It involves structuring your finances in a way that allows you to qualify for Medicaid—without being forced to spend down all of your hard-earned assets. Most often, this involves setting up a legally-compliant trust.
Establishing proper legal structures is essential for ensuring that your wishes are followed and your assets are distributed correctly after death. This is particularly important during unpredictable and critical moments for families.
Key Point: Medicaid has a Five-Year Lookback Rule
A critical aspect of Medicaid planning in Pennsylvania is the Five-Year Lookback Rule. Medicaid reviews all financial transactions made in the five years before a person applies for benefits. If it finds that assets were transferred below market value, it may impose a penalty period during which you are ineligible for Medicaid benefits. In other words, you generally need to set up a Medicaid trust at least five years before you need long-term care benefits.
Why You Can Rely On Keystone Elder Law for Medicaid Planning and Asset Protection
Long-term care costs pose a significant threat to your family’s assets. A proactive, detail-focused Medicaid planning approach and legal practice is key to asset protection. At Keystone Elder Law P.C., we help middle-class families in Pennsylvania protect their assets. Among other things, our Harrisburg estate planning attorneys will:
- Hear what you have to say and answer your asset protection questions.
- Review your financial situation to ensure a full understanding of the risks you face.
- Develop a Medicaid planning strategy to best protect your family from long-term care costs.
As part of our services, we also guide you through the estate planning process, ensuring your documents are up-to-date and your estate plan is comprehensive.
Contact Our Harrisburg Medicaid Planning & Asset Protection Lawyer Today
At Keystone Elder Law P.C., our Harrisburg estate planning attorneys have deep experience providing Medicaid planning services. It is crucial to have a living will, a legal document that specifies your medical care instructions in the event of incapacitation or an end-of-life situation. If you have any questions about asset protection, please do not hesitate to contact us today. Our firm provides Medicaid planning and asset protection services to clients in Harrisburg, Dauphin County, and throughout all of Central Pennsylvania. Proper legal documentation, such as a power of attorney, is essential for managing your own affairs if you become incapacitated due to health issues.
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REGISTER HERE for LONG-TERM CARE PLANNINGPower of Attorney
A Power of Attorney can be used to give another person the right to sell a car, home, or other property in the place of the maker of the Power of Attorney. A Power of Attorney might be used to allow another person to sign a contract for the maker of the Power of Attorney (the person who makes a power of attorney is called the “principal”). It can be used to give another person the authority to make health care decisions, do financial transactions, or sign legal documents that the principal cannot do for one reason or another. With few exceptions, Powers of Attorney can give others the right to do any legal acts that the makers of the Powers of Attorney could do them themselves. A General Power of Attorney gives the “power of attorney Agent” or simply “Agent” (the legal name of the person who is authorized to act for the principal) very broad powers to do almost every legal act that the principal can do. When Elder Law Attorneys draft general Powers of Attorney, they still list the types of things the Agent can do but these powers are very broad. People often do general Powers of Attorney to plan ahead for the day when they may not be able to take care of things themselves. By doing the General Power of Attorney, they designate someone who can do these things for them.
Normal Powers of Attorney terminate if and when the principal becomes incompetent. Yet many people do Powers of Attorney for the sole purpose of designating someone else to act for them if they cannot act for themselves. It is precisely when persons can no longer do for themselves that a Power of Attorney is most valuable. To remedy this inconsistency, the law created a Durable Power of Attorney that remains effective even if a person becomes incompetent. The only thing that distinguishes a Durable Power of Attorney from a regular Power of Attorney is special wording that states that the power survives the principal’s incapacity. Even a Durable Power of Attorney, however, may be terminated under certain circumstances if court proceedings are filed. Most Powers of Attorney done today are durable.
Yes. At the time the Power of Attorney is signed, the principal must be capable of understanding the document. Although a Power of Attorney is still valid if and when a person becomes incompetent, the principal must understand what he or she is signing at the moment of execution. That means a person can be suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s Disease or be otherwise incompetent sometimes but as long as they have a lucid moment and are competent at the moment they sign the Power of Attorney, it is valid even if they do not remember signing it at a later date. At the time it is signed, the principal must know what the Power of Attorney does, whom they are giving the Power of Attorney to, and what property may be affected by the Power of Attorney.
Any competent person eighteen years of age and older can serve as an agent. Certain financial institutions can also serve. There is no course of education that agent must complete or any test that Agent must pass. Because a Power of Attorney is such a potentially powerful document, agents should be chosen for reliability and trustworthiness. In the wrong hands, a Power of Attorney can be a license to steal. It can be a big responsibility to serve as an agent.
For Medicaid
Medicare is health insurance and covers medical services such as physician appointments, therapy, blood tests, x rays, medical procedures and hospitalization. Medicare will sometime pay for rehabilitation in a long-term care facility for a period of 20 to 100 days, but not longer. In long-term care, Medicaid covers the cost of ongoing support services for daily functioning, such as room and board in a nursing home.
Medicaid is a federal program that is overseen by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In Pennsylvania, Medicaid is called Medical Assistance and is administered by the Department of Human Services (DHS).
In Pennsylvania, Medicaid funds are not available to pay for assisted living or personal care.
For Medicaid to pay for care in a nursing home, an individual recipient must be determined to need a nursing home level of care by a physician and the local Office of Aging. An individual whose income is not greater than three times the poverty level may keep up to $8,000 of total resources, but may otherwise keep only $2,400. The cash value of life insurance counts as a resource, but one car and a residential home does not count as a resource.
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Empowering Clients with Holistic Planning at
Keystone Elder Law
At Keystone Elder Law, we believe that the physical, social, legal, and financial considerations of our clients all intertwine. We utilize an interdisciplinary approach to evaluate each area, which allows for the creation of a plan that addresses the concerns of the individual as a whole as well as the family. To this end, our model of practice includes a Care Coordinator (usually a nurse or social worker), whose expertise complements our team of attorneys.
When the road of life is smooth, decisions about legal and financial matters are easy to push aside for “a rainy day.” Planning ahead, however, will allow for more options as you view the map of where you’ve been and where you want to go. Don’t let a crisis limit your choices or derail your plans.
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