Most people put off planning for the cost of a nursing home or assisted living, believing they’ll never require long-term care or that they won’t need it for many years to come. However, if the situation arises or happens earlier than you expect, the high cost of long-term care can become a huge burden for you or even need to be shouldered by your loved ones, depriving you or them of many hard-earned assets. You can put a plan in place to protect Medicaid assets, preserving your property for your beneficiaries and allowing to you afford long-term care if and when it’s needed. Here are a few reasons to consider advanced planning.

The Medicaid Approval Process Speeds Up

Advanced Medicaid planning lets you decide how to transfer or distribute assets in ways that can make approval for Medicaid more rapid. Setting up a plan that shows recent transfers of property don’t require extra scrutiny to determine whether they violate Medicaid requirements can avoid unnecessary delays.

The Cost of Long-Term Care

Many people don’t realize that not all long-term care insurance policies may not pay the entire cost of nursing home or assisted living care. If there is any gap between the benefits from your insurance policy and total cost of care, you might be required to pay out of pocket for the difference without proper Medicaid planning.

Sidestepping Medicaid’s Look-Back Period

Medicaid has an automatic look-back period to examine whether you transferred assets prior to applying for benefits. Advanced Medicaid planning is a way to examine which asset transfers might disqualify you from benefits and transfer them prior to a look-back period.

Lack of Coverage by Health Insurance

Some people may think a good health insurance policy will take care of long-term care costs. In some cases, a policy might cover a short-term nursing home or assisted care facility stay. However, neither Medicare nor health insurance cover long-term care costs, so it’s important to plan for the cost in advance.

Saving Assets for Your Spouse

One way to help save your assets so your spouse can care for themselves even if you need pricey long-term care is Medicaid planning. Unless an asset protection plan is in place, your spouse might have to liquidate assets such as your home to pay for your care.

Contact a Florida Medicaid Planning Lawyer

It may be unpleasant to consider that you might need long-term care, but to protect assets and help ensure that you can qualify for Medicaid when you apply it is important to plan ahead. The experienced Medicaid Planning attorneys at The Legacy Law Firm are here to help review the options available for asset protection and assist you in developing a Medicaid asset program tailored specifically to your situation. Contact us today to learn about your options, have your questions answered, and get started.