Elder Law/Medicaid Planning
New York Elder Law and Medicaid Planning Attorney
Elder Law encompasses a wide range of practice areas, including long-term care planning, Medicaid planning, estate planning, asset protection, and more. We have extensive experience in all of these areas and are committed to helping seniors and their loved ones manage the changes that come with growing older. In particular, we help families cope with the high cost of long-term care.
Managing the Cost of Long-Term Care
Americans are living longer than ever before. This is good news, but the majority of us will require long-term care at some point in our lives and 20 percent of us will need long-term care for five years or more.
Long-term care in the state of New York is expensive. The median cost of a private room in a nursing home was more than $148,000 per year in 2019, and costs are expected to rise in the future. Sadly, many families exhaust their life savings within two years of a family member entering a nursing home.
Fortunately, we can help you qualify for assistance from Medicaid and other sources to obtain the care you need while simultaneously preserving your life savings. We can help you plan in advance for the possibility of needing long-term care in the future. We can even protect your hard-earned assets if you are already in a nursing home or must move to one soon.
Long-Term Care Planning
Long-term care planning, also known as Medicaid planning, is for people who are healthy now but want to ensure that if they become incapacitated they will be able to get the care they need without losing their life savings. We can use a variety of tools and strategies to accomplish this, such as Asset Protection Trusts. We can also use advance directives, like powers of attorney, health care proxies, and living wills to ensure your wishes regarding your finances and medical care are followed in the event of incapacity. With such a plan in place, you can rest assured that you will be well cared for if you become incapacitated and that your life savings will be protected.
A Medicaid Crisis
A Medicaid crisis is a situation wherein an individual resides in a nursing home—or must move to one very soon—and has been informed that he or she owns too many assets to qualify for assistance from Medicaid. As you might imagine, learning that you will have to pay more than $148,000 a year for nursing home care creates a crisis situation for most families. If you have been given news like this, don’t panic. You must understand that information provided by friends, social workers, nursing home intake staff, and even Medicaid workers can be confusing. The laws governing Medicaid eligibility are ever-changing and quite complicated. Few people understand them. We do.
Whether you are faced with a Medicaid crisis or looking to plan in advance for the possibility of needing long-term care in the future, we can help. We invite you to contact us at your earliest convenience to discuss your unique needs and goals.