People are sometimes under the impression that they have to choose between a Medicaid nursing home in a nursing home that does not accept Medicaid. They may believe that the home that does take Medicaid is inferior. They believe it is not going to offer them all of the same services and benefits because of the source of their monthly payments.
The first thing that you should know here is that this is a very common myth. You’re not going to get inferior service at a nursing home simply because you’re using Medicaid to pay for it.
It’s also a myth that there are two different types of nursing homes or that some of them are going to refuse to accept Medicaid. All of the nursing homes in New Jersey are going to take it. No matter how fancy or expensive they are, this is an option that you can use.
Will the staff know?
People also sometimes believe that the staff members at the nursing home are going to be informed that they’re paying with Medicaid. They may be afraid that this will cause individual workers to give them worse treatment, even if the nursing home technically provides for everyone.
But the truth here is that the workers have no idea where the payments are coming from. This isn’t something that they’re concerned about and they’re not going to know if you’re paying out-of-pocket or through Medicaid.
What do you need to do?
Although you can pay for full long-term care using Medicaid, you likely need to spend down your assets in cash in order to make yourself eligible. There’s a financial requirement that has to be considered.
This is why people sometimes take steps like moving their assets into a trust specifically designed for this purpose. They may also give gifts to their children in advance, rather than waiting to put them in their estate plan. What they’re trying to do is reduce the amount of wealth that they directly control so that they can use the benefits and they don’t have to pay the nursing home out of pocket until they run out of money first.
You can see that this process can become complicated and you definitely don’t want to make financial mistakes, so be sure you understand exactly what steps you need to take.
