By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or
[email protected] to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
*If I am consenting on behalf of someone else, I have the proper authorization to do so. By clicking Get My Results, you agree to our
Privacy Policy. You also consent to receive calls and texts, which may be autodialed, from us and our customer communities. Your consent is not a condition to using our service. Please visit our
Terms of Use. for information about our privacy practices.
The only correct answer to your question is to consult an estate planning / elder care attorney.
Again, don't get SOLD something you don't understand. Getting sold some useless and worthless vitamins is usually OK. You just eliminate them next time you go to the bathroom. Buying a mess of annuities or making trusts you cannot change (read irrevocable) is NOT so easily undone. In fact, it isn't undone at ALL.
GET EXPERT ADVICE
You have Medicare as health insurance but imho you need to clearly find out just what your State does for its many Medicaid programs esp for Medicaid to become a “dual” so that y’all are Medicare and Medicaid eventually for health insurance and then what the criteria is for Medicaid custodial care programs aka LTC Medicaid in a facility usually a NH aka a skilled nursing care facility OR for Medicaid as community based for In-Home Health or a PACE program. Medicaid is huge, HUGE, and each program has its own criteria but once ya get into reading, you will see the pattern to the maze.
Also your area will have an Area on Aging and they have staffing and info and do seminars, etc…. AoA is part of your Council of Government which are regional planning bodies in all states that do work on things that involved federal/State $ that cross jurisdictional lines. COGs do alot of work in transportation stuff but also do Area on Aging. A lot of COGs now have the AoA as a free standing agency and the Ombudsman program is in the AoA. It’s your tax $ at work, use it!
and since y’all are a couple, please PLEASE realize that the rules for couples when it’s that 1 is likely to need a facility way ahead of the other is entirely different than what it is for an individual. Turn a deaf ear to what anyone tells you happened for their mom, or an Uncle, or a friend. Widower/ widow individual LTC Medicaid application easy peasy compared to the issues that have to be taken into account for couples.
Couples and LTC Medicaid eligibility are a totally different creature and imho you have to, have to have a CELA level of attorney work with you at some point in all this to give you options. It’s not a DIY as only the requiring a facility spouse needs to be impoverished NOT the still living in the community spouse. Segregating NH v. CS income and assets is not necessarily straightforward and there’s lots of nuances on this that very much tied into how your State administers its Medicaid and what exactly your states laws are on property & probate. CS does not themselves need to become “impoverished” but how best to do is not a DIY. That’s CELA attorney work & often with a financial advisor with a series 7 license (a licensed fiduciary).
lots of little things & flat out bad ideas couple often do: like most do a “pour over” will, but once on LTC Medicaid bad, very bad idea, cause if you get hit by a bus & die, your in a NH spouse gets the assets which takes them over limits, just who is there to deal with this for them?? It’s stuff like this is why you want experienced attorney. Another thing is you may get mailings to do “ok 4 Medicaid annuities”, which technically is accurate as is a move of your $ into insurance product you own, however, when later on you do file for LTC Medicaid, what States usually do is require beneficiary change to have State become primary beneficiary to be OK for LTC Medicaid eligibility. So upon death State is beneficiary & only after State recoups all costs paid by Medicaid does secondary’s get paid any funds left. LOL. That probably is so not why you did that annuity, but doesn’t matter to insurance guy who got their commission ages ago. Routine paperwork for State Dept of Insurance. Also if annuity in payout, that’s income. If your SS is high, and annuity payout is also, could take you over most States LTC Medicaid individual income max of $2,752. You’d need an atty to deal with this and with your spouse filing for their own resource allowance from that income, to get the overage ok. But to do this, isn’t a DIY. Overwhelmed??
Like I said, it’s not straightforward for couples. Really research, form ?’s and find a CELA that y’all like & let them come up with options that fit for how your State runs. It will be ok.
You need to consult an Elder Law attorney in your state.
Applying for LTC Medicaid as a married couple is not a do it yourself project, and the details vary widely from State to State.
If only one of you needs to go into care, most states will allow the Community Spouse to preserve their own assets.