My loved one was just diagnosed with Alzheimers or Dementia

It can be trying, difficult and expensive to care for a loved one with Alzheimers or dementia.  For example, currently, the average cost of nursing home care in South Florida is estimated at over $7,500 per month.  And home care can be 50 to 100 thousand per year. The question becomes: how do we pay for long-term care if we have a loved one diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia?

With our documents in place, we next discuss how we are going to pay for the costs of long term care.

1. A family can privately pay for long-term care. In other words, they can use their retirement accounts or savings, sell real estate, etc.to fund care. This is where most families start, but they certainly don’t want to depend on it.
2. Families rely on their children to pay for long-term care. Often, the kids do not financially pay for long-term care, but they often pay for long-term care by using their blood, sweat and tears.  Children are my typical introduction into the family, trying to hold the pieces together on the best legal, financial and personal plan for the family
3. Make use of long-term care insurance. There are now new forms of long-term care insurance that do not have the escalating premiums of pure long-term care policies and also provide a death benefit should the individual never need long-term care. The key to long-term care insurance is that it needs to be set up ahead of the Alzheimer’s or dementia diagnoses. (See information on our website for new kinds of hybrid policies for yourself and other family and friends)  
4. Medicare does not actually pay for long-term care. What Medicare pays for is short-term rehab when there is some type of event, such as a broken hip. Medicare also pays for hospice, also known as end-of-life care, which is important for families that have loved ones diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or dementia.
5. Families of veterans can make use of the veterans benefit, more specifically the non-service-connected pension, which is sometimes called the aid and attendance benefit. This VA benefit can provide an additional $1,000-$2,000 per month to help pay for long-term care for veterans and surviving spouses of veterans. There are some new laws affecting Veteran’s benefits that impose a look back period so pre planning is essential for that as well.
6. Medicaid may help pay for the cost of a nursing home and possibly some home or assisted living. However, there are certain requirements to qualify for Medicaid, including an asset test as well as a look-back period to see if a family has moved any money around. One of the strategies to help pay for long-term care and use Medicaid would be utilizing a Protection Trust, as a way to shelter assets and protect against the Medicaid or nursing home spend-down.

When you come to our office, we discuss all of these issues and more, including community resources and referrals to other professionals if necessary.  We look forward to working with you.