Long-Term Medicaid and VA Benefits FAQ

No. We can show you how to get there while protecting most, if not all, of your assets.

No. Medicaid and state caseworkers are not allowed to give financial or legal advice.

It depends. Medicaid eligibility is linked to income, expenses, value or assets, etc. We teach you how to use the Medicaid rules to get a resident financially qualified as quickly as possible.

No. The actual caregivers have no idea, nor do they care, which is which. In addition, every facility must abide by state and federal standards of care. Quality care is the function of the specific facility rather than the pay source of the patient.

Once a patient is financially qualified for long-term care via Medicaid, they would remain qualified for the rest of their lives unless they acquire additional assets (i.e. an inheritance).

No. We disclose the complete asset protection strategies with Medicaid so everything is above board. There is absolutely no need to hide anything.

Let us teach you the techniques and strategies that will allow you to implement a plan to protect a large portion of his estate for his grandchildren while allowing him to qualify for Medicaid.

Any wartime veteran or surviving spouse of a wartime veteran 65 or older or diagnosed as completely disabled if under 65 and who satisfies the service criteria and needs the aid and attendance of another person to perform at least 2 activities of daily living such as bathing, feeding, dressing, attending to the wants of nature or protecting himself / herself from the hazards of his / her daily environment.

The veteran must have served at least 90 days of consecutive service, 1 day during wartime (see eligible periods of war), and been honorably discharged. In some cases, a less than dishonorable discharge or “bad paper” may still be eligible.

We will provide you with a checklist of everything we would eventually need in order to file the benefit. Every application is different and different documents are needed under certain circumstances.

Typical documents include the following:

• Social Security benefits letter
• Copy of driver's license
• Medicare card
• Insurance cards
• Bank statements
• Death certificate (if necessary)
• Marriage certificate (if necessary)
• Medical evaluation from the claimant's doctor
• Medical expense records
• Military discharge papers

The VA has recently gone through some qualification changes you should be aware of.  They are implementing a 36-month lookback period effective the 18 of October 2018.  In addition, the total amount of assets you can have has been increased, regardless if you are married or single, and your annual income is now included as an asset. These new VA regulations also implement a divestment penalty for gifted assets with-in the lookback period. With proper planning by an accredited VA attorney, you can reduce your countable income and minimize your penalty period to 36 months.   In the long run, we believe this will be a much better system with firm guidelines that are not as subjective as the old guidelines. 

The typical wait time is currently 4 to 6 months. Providing we have a full and complete file with all the supporting documentation, wait time can be cut to as little 6 to 8 weeks. Benefits are paid retroactively dating back to the 1st of the month following the date of application.

No. This is a non-taxable federal benefit and is recognized as such by the IRS and SSA.

No. Once your mom remarried, she gave up rights to benefits resulting from your dad's service. However, she would be eligible for benefits from her second husband provided they were married at least one year and her new husband satisfied the service criteria.