Protect from Nursing Home Expenses

With the average annual cost of a nursing home in Colorado nearing $80,000, now is the time to ensure that your estate plan makes provisions for nursing home expenses. A nursing home is normally the highest level of care for people who need assistance with activities of daily living, and therefore the most expensive.

Nursing home versus assisted living expenses

Nursing homes provide not only custodial care, which means assistance with the activities of daily living, but a high level of medical care as well. In a nursing home, a licensed physician supervises each patient’s care and a nurse or other medical professional is always on the premises. On the other hand, the cost of Assisted Living facilities in Colorado, which provide only limited custodial care and no medical care, averages nearly half that of nursing home expenses, with an annual rate of approximately $45,000.

Will Medicare pay for nursing home costs?

Many people are mistaken in their belief that Medicare or their private health insurance will cover nursing home expenses or other long term care expenses. Medicare covers certain short term skilled nursing facility costs. However, long term care costs are not covered under Medicare. Often, senior citizens must turn to Medicaid, the state-run, federally-funded, need-based program to help with these costs.

How to qualify for Medicaid

In order to qualify for Medicaid benefits to pay for nursing home care, an individual must meet the medical requirements, as well as income and resources limitations. If the individual does not meet these limitations when they enter the nursing home, they must use their own resources until nearly depleted to be eligible for Medicaid assistance.

We can help you protect from nursing home expenses

When it comes to long term nursing costs, planning is the key word, as Medicaid planning helps protect your family and individual assets from the catastrophic costs of nursing home care. While nursing home expenses and Medicaid planning may seem like something in the distant future, a comprehensive, holistic estate planning process that accounts for later-in-life circumstances can keep assets in the family should Medicaid be needed to pay for your care. Hammond Law Group can best advise you on plans for your specific needs, both now and in the future. We can even help with the actual Medicaid application if it comes to that. We’re just a phone call away.