Question about assisted living facilities....

[madmom]

Does anyone know if medicare helps pay for this in anyway? We are trying to get my parents into a local facility and boy-howdy are they expensive! Thanks for any info.

[Electric Monk]

1. found with a quick google

http://www.assistedlivingfacilities.org/blog/category/medicare-2/

[NYC_SKP]

2. Are either Veterans?

It can help.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. It is complicated, and aspects are state specific. My mom is in Florida -

and as long as she has money to her name, there is no help - out of her funds (essentially the total of the 401K acct and money from their home sale after my dad passed) my brother pays her monthly rent. Once her acct is down to just a few months of rent in value, she is provided with a medicare room - she gets to stay there, no charge - but it must be in a double.

So essentially the coverage doesn't kick in until her money completely dries up....we are facing that with my mom within the next few months.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. No, Medicare will not pay for long term assisted living facilities. Medicaid

will pay for them, but one must have limited assets before they will.

Traditionally, Medicare does not cover the costs of assisted living facilities or long-term care facilities. However, Medicare will cover qualified healthcare costs while your loved one is living at a certain facility. Medicare is more often used to pay for a skilled nursing facility or home health care. There are always exceptional circumstances that will allow Medicare to cover different types of care, but in most cases Medicare won’t cover the costs of "custodial care."

In some states, Medicaid is used to pay for some of the costs associated with assisted living if your loved one has a limited income. Medicaid is designed to help seniors and some individuals with disabilities pay for healthcare when they are unable to pay for it themselves.

http://www.brookdaleliving.com/Medicare-coverage-for-Assisted-Living.aspx

[dem in texas]

6. Don't come to Texas

My nephew who is disabled and autistic and unable to work. His parents are deceased and the family looks after him. The state of Texas was paying his Medicare part b through Medicaid and it was cut in 2013. He has to have part B, he has to go to doctor quite often, so he is paying for it now. It is a real hit to the meager amount of disability he gets. We helped out several years back and he had to include our help as income and he could not get food stamps. Texas also dropped him off the Summer Utility assistance program. It burns me up to see Rick Perry strutting around telling everyone how great it is in Texas. That maybe so if you are rich, but if you are poor and disabled, you better live somewhere else.

My mother lived in assisted living the last few years of her life and it took all her monthly social security plus we had to kick in money too. The only financial assistance she could get would be to go into a nursing home, then Medicaid would pay for it. but she was in pretty good health and did not need to be in a nursing home. The only way Medicaid will pay for assisted living in Texas is for the person to be homeless and in dire health. I think my nephew should be an assisted living, but it is out of the question money wise and morally, we would never let him be without somewhere to live.

[DesertFlower]

5. i'm in arizona. my mom was in assisted living.

i chose a place that was contracted with medicaid so when her money ran out she wouldn't have to move again. she only had about $35,000. the assisted living was $3,000 a month for a private room. she was only there 2 months before she passed, but her money would have run out in about a year and she would have had to give up the private room.