Elder Law Answers
Can I Take My Mother Out of a Nursing Home Over the Objections of Her Agent Under a POA?
My eldest brother, who is my mom's agent under a power of attorney, has put my mom in a nursing home. She does not wan...
Read moreCan Medicaid Take My Mother's Settlement Money From a Lawsuit Against the Nursing Home?
- September 13th, 2017
Q
My mother went into a nursing home six years ago after she broke her hip. She receives Medicaid benefits. We intended for her to get therapy and return home, but while she was in the nursing home, she was severely injured in a fall and now cannot leave the nursing home. She sued the nursing home and received a little more than $25,000 in a settlement. Now Medicaid wants the money that was awarded to her to pay for her care. How can this happen? It should be illegal. Medicaid should make the nursing home be responsible for their neglect and my mother's health from now forward. Is there any way for my mother to keep this money to be used for her final expenses?
A
This is a problem when a nursing home resident who is covered by Medicaid, as most nursing home residents are, files a lawsuit against a nursing facility. In order to get Medicaid coverage, nursing home residents must spend down all of their money. If they receive money from any source, including a lawsuit, it must then be spent down. This is something the law firm should have discussed with your family before bringing the lawsuit. Some states allow transfers to a pooled disability trust, which would permit the funds to be used for your mother’s benefit. Any funds left in the trust at your mother's death would have to be paid to the state. To see if this avenue is available where your mother lives, contact a pooled trust in your state. Here’s a directory of pooled trusts: http://specialneedsanswers.com/pooled-trust.
Local Elder Law Attorneys in Ashburn, VA
Jeffrey Hammond
Hammond and Associates, LLC, Elder Law, Estate Planning, Wills, Trusts, Probate
Bethesda, MD
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Margaret O'Reilly
Margaret A. O'Reilly, PC
Margaret A. O’Reilly is an estate planning and elder law attorney with over thirty-five years of legal experience. Attorney O’Reilly graduated from Duke University with a degree in psychology, and received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts. For over 15 y...
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Jean Ball
Hale Ball Carlson Baumgartner Murphy PLC
Jean Galloway Ball is certified in Elder Law by the National Elder Law Foundation. She is a 1977 honors graduate of the National Law Center, George Washington University, and she did her undergraduate work at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1971. She is admitted to practice in Vir...
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Jeffrey Hammond
Hammond and Associates, LLC, Elder Law, Estate Planning, Wills, Trusts, Probate
For Jeffrey Hammond, the practice of Elder Law is personal. Jeff’s many years of experience in law and in business did not prepare him for the crisis he faced in 2005 and 2006 when his father suffered a stroke and both of his parents suffered from dementia and other medical problems. At that time, Jeff began an i...
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