How An NYSARC Trust Can Delay The Need For Nursing Home Care

Many of us are responsible for providing for older family members or friends. For these loved ones, remaining in their home is often a priority. Unfortunately, the costs of maintaining a household while paying for in-home care services can quickly deplete any available resources, making nursing home care a more financially viable option. By using asset protection tools such as an NYSARC trust, your loved one can continue to use their money to pay rent or a mortgage, utilities, and other household costs, while reducing the amount of income used to determine Medicaid eligibility.

Getting The Home Care You Need Through Medicaid Services

Medicaid provides benefits that can help supplement traditional Medicare, particularly when it comes to paying long term care costs. To be eligible to receive these benefits, you must either fall below the program’s income guidelines or be deemed medically needy. For those who require care but make too much money through Social Security, pensions, or retirement plan payments, Medicare offers a ‘spend down’ process. The following is an example of how this process works:

• New York State Medicaid eligibility levels are less than $900 for an individual who is disabled, blind, or over the age of 65;
• If you receive $1,500 per month in SSI or pension benefits, your ‘spend down’ amount would be roughly $600;
• This spend down amount is the portion of costs you would be responsible for paying before Medicaid picked up any additional costs.

Spending this amount of money for long term care costs each month would likely leave little to allow for household expenses, which can make nursing home care seem like a more financially viable option. This is where a pooled income trust, such as those offered through NYSARC, can help.

How NYSARC Trusts Work

NYSARC Trust Services is a not for profit organization that offers special or supplemental needs trusts (SNT) to help people meet the income guidelines for government benefit programs such as Social Security Income (SSI) and Medicaid. Authorized by both state and federal laws, an SNT can be established by an individual or by a third party, such as a family member, to preserve spend down amounts, while ensuring eligibility for program services.

Through a pooled community trust, this excess amount can be deposited and earmarked for purposes such as paying rent or utilities. This allows you to keep more of your monthly income, while receiving home health care services paid through the Medicaid program. The important thing to remember with these trusts is that any money deposited must be spent each month, as funds are not permitted to be accumulated or distributed to heirs in the event of the person’s death.

Let Us Help You Today

To discuss your options in terms of paying for long term care and whether an NYSARC trust might be right for you, call or contact Cavallo & Cavallo online today. We can arrange a consultation with our New York asset protection attorneys in either our Bronx or Westchester office to help determine the best way for getting your loved one the care they need.

Resources:

medicare.gov/your-medicare-costs/help-paying-costs/medicaid/medicaid.html

trustservices.nysarc.org/what-special-needs-trust/

health.ny.gov/health_care/medicaid/#income