Tag: Medicaid

Special guest Ryan Callahan shares why families need a trusted guide—someone he calls a “care quarterback”—to help coordinate the many moving parts of aging and caregiving. This conversation with Suzanne Newman and Lindsay Friedman offers practical insights for older adults, family caregivers, and anyone planning for the future. Most importantly, it highlights why proactive planning can help families avoid costly mistakes, reduce stress, and preserve precious time together.

Suzanne and Lindsay Friedman dive deeper into the real-life complexities of aging in place, Medicaid planning, home care shortages, and protecting your family from crisis decision-making. They explore how to build a “living, breathing” care plan that adapts as your health, finances, or state of residence change. They discuss why Medicaid rules vary by state, how estate-planning documents like powers of attorney may not transfer across state lines, and why interviewing home care agencies before you need them can prevent overwhelming delays during a medical emergency. If you’re over 40, caring for aging parents, or thinking about your own future, this episode offers practical guidance you can act on now.

If you're applying for Medicaid, what happens if they say you have "too much income?" Elder Law Attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to discuss this interesting scenario. You would need to seek a lawyer, set up a qualified income trust, called a "Miller trust," and then you have to use that trust every month, in order to even qualify for Medicaid.

If you are a married couple, what happens to your income as a Medicaid applicant? Elder Law Attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to answer this question. They must be married; some states recognize common law marriage, others not. The income of the well spouse does not get to be used under Medicaid rules to pay the expenses of the ill spouse.

If you are a single Medicaid applicant, what happens to your income? Almost every dollar is accounted for in the Medicaid rules — where can you expect that money to go? Generally, for a single person, a person's income is used before Medicaid dollars. There are three places where money is usually going to go: 1) your personal needs allowance (spending money); 2) rent if you're in an assisted living community; and 3) health insurance premiums.

Elder Law Attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to talk about how Medicaid and other long-term care situations handle retirees who continue to receive income the rest of their lives. Income payments can come from Social Security retirement benefits, disability benefits, pension payments, VA pension payments, annuity payments, or income from rental properties.

When talking to an elder law attorney, what questions should you ask about spend downs, and what questions you should be prepared to answer? If you have the power of attorney for a senior loved one, how do you start the conversation with the family about their assets, and how do you best navigate this with them? Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne Newman to answer these questions.

How do you take care of your spouse if you need long term care now? What can you do with your money if your spouse is still at home? Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne Newman to answer these questions, by spending down your money to access Medicaid and VA benefits.

What is a Medicaid spend down? Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne Newman to answer this question, and shows how it differs if you're single or married. With a single person, if they want VA coverage, they have the same asset limits of $130K. If they want Medicaid long-term care coverage, they need to reduce assets to $2K, or their state's level, which is very different from the VA level. How you do that is through a spend down.

What do you do when you or a senior loved one needs care now — a crisis situation — and they have some money available? In this situation, one option is to choose to private pay for the care. This segment focuses on financial eligibility for married couples to receive VA pension benefits and Medicaid. If you're married, to get Medicaid you have to spend your assets down below $2,000 (Federal and Ohio levels; amounts vary by state).