long term care

What Are Your Chances of Needing Long Term Care?

by with No Comment Long Term Care

long term care

Research from the World Health Organization shows that people are living longer. However, this isn’t all good news, as many people may not recognize the potential for suffering serious medical conditions in their later years. By 2030, one in six people all over the world will be at least 60 years old.

This means that many countries are experiencing a significant surge in older populations, which raises many serious and complex health concerns. These can include things such as higher risk for dementia, overall frailty, urinary incontinence, neck and back pain, hearing loss, cataracts, pressure ulcers, COPD, depression, diabetes, and osteoarthritis. Some individuals will even experience more than one of these at the same time.

If you don’t think you’ll be impacted, you’re wrong: over 70% of people aged 65.6  and above will need some kind of long-term care support in their future. Some may require ongoing care or a permanent stay at a nursing home. If you have not considered the possibility and how you might pay for it, you need to think now about how you might qualify for Medicaid in NH by speaking with an elder lawyer.

Creating a long-term care plan is an important component of establishing your goals for your individual estate. This helps you to articulate the types of medical choices you want made regarding your care and even can appoint other people to help make these decisions on your behalf should you trust them and name them to do so. There are many complicated components to establishing a complete long term care plan, which makes it even more important to identify a lawyer in your region who has the appropriate experience, understanding and compassion to help you craft a plan that is aligned with your individual needs.

How Does an Estate Plan Address Long Term Care Costs?

by with No Comment Estate PlanningLong Term Care

Estate planning considers aspects related to management of your assets over the course of your life and what happens to them after you pass away, but it can also go so much further.

When you work with a knowledgeable estate planning lawyer, you should be able to develop a holistic plan that considers multiple aspects of elder law and potential long term care needs. Increasingly, clients are asking their estate planning attorneys for support with the cost of long-term care.

Having Medicare doesn’t cover many of the expenses associated with a stay in a nursing facility, which can come as a shock when you or a loved one need to be moved into that facility as soon as possible. Without planning in advance, you may not qualify for Medicaid quickly enough to cover those expenses, either.

Given that one in four adults over age 65 will need to spend some time in a nursing facility at some point in the future, it is very valuable to think about how long-term care costs may be addressed in your estate plan. This may be liquidating an asset that could influence the rest of your decisions around what to pass on to future heirs, but it can also include a plan to qualify for Medicaid.

This often requires advanced forethought and the consideration of what you would do if you or a spouse needed to access long term care. Reviewing all of your options now puts you in a much better position if and when this issue comes up in the future.

 

long-term

What Are Your Odds of Needing Long-Term Care in The Future?

by with No Comment Estate PlanningLong Term Care

Most people hope to live a long and healthy life remaining in their own home until they pass away, but the need for possible long-term care or health care assistance cannot be ignored. Anyone might require assistance as they age due to frailty, loss of eyesight, illness, dementia, or slip and fall injuries like a broken hip. How long this assistance will last and its cost can vary tremendously. You may need total care for many years, or just short-term recovery after a surgery or a fall.long-term

The difficulty of planning is much more complicated than most people anticipate. Assuming that Medicare will pick up the tab for these expenses can be a big mistake, particularly because a stay in a long-term care facility may not be fully covered by Medicare after a certain point in time.

This makes it all the more important to engage the services of an estate planning attorney to discuss elder law issues like these. Having a plan on your own in terms of qualifying for Medicaid can ensure that you use all legal methods at your disposal and greatly increase your chances of recovering compensation.

The support of an experienced attorney can help give you peace of mind that if and when the time comes for you to need long term care, you do not put this financial burden on your loved ones.

Contact a NH or ME estate planning lawyer to discuss next steps with long term care.

 

What You Need to Know About Qualifying for Medicaid in New Hampshire

by Long Term CareMedicaid

When you or another loved one is looking at the prospect of staying in a nursing home, the cost of the required care can be overwhelming. For an average couple, a stay in a nursing home could decimate the pair’s savings, which is why more couples are doing advanced planning to work with elder lawyers regarding Medicaid qualification in NH.

Qualification for Medicaid is a popular question among those who are in need of advanced nursing home care. Financial requirements for Medicaid are specified at the state level.

The primary purpose of this program is to enable those who do not otherwise have financial resources to get support for their health care. Many people are mistakenly under the impression that Medicare will cover the expenses of their nursing home stay or other long term care needs.

Qualifying for Medicaid is not guaranteed and careful thought must be put into your advanced Medicaid qualification plan. You must meet the resource requirements as well as the income requirements to be eligible for Medicaid in New Hampshire. The program considers household income, the counting of household resources where applicable, and potential income. In addition to these financial requirements there are medical requirements that can be supported by proof of your medical condition.

Medical records are most frequently used to determine whether or not you need the long term care you are intending to have paid by Medicaid. If you need more specifics on qualifying for Medicaid in New Hampshire, schedule a consultation with an estate planning lawyer today. Get answers to your most important questions and start roadmapping your plan for long term care.

 

 

What Is Long Term Care Insurance?

by Estate PlanningLong Term Care

Like many insurance policies, the goal is to sign up for long-term care insurance well before you need it so that the benefits are there in the event of an unexpected issue.

Many retirees can realize that the same amount of money they have projected to cover their vacation, property taxes and food after the workforce will also have to support their long-term care in their older years.

Approximately half of the US population, according to research from the US Department of Health and Human Services, will need long-term care services and support, such as payments to live in an assisted living community or an in-home caregiver.

Many Americans will pay much higher than the national average for those services of $140,000. Long-term custodial care represents a significant threat to a couple’s retirement savings and one way to minimize this risk is to leverage long-term care insurance which offers one way to prepare for in-home nursing care or extended stays in certain assisted living facilities while protecting your overall retirement funds.

Most LTC insurance policies will cover costs related to staying in an assisted living facility, nursing home or adult day care. It will not cover medical expenses, however. A doctor will have to verify that you meet the appropriate level of support for long-term care services. 

You will need assistance with at least two of the five activities of daily living, which are feeding, toileting, transferring, dressing and bathing. For more information about how to protect your interests and whether or not long-term care insurance makes sense for you, schedule a consultation with an attorney.

 

 

 

What Are the Best Places to Live for the Cost of Long Term Care?

by Elder LawLong Term Care

Given that many people will need some form of support from long term care services in their older years, it’s critical to understand how this might impact your retirement savings and other financial situation.

A consultation with a dedicated estate planning lawyer can help you to clarify some of these questions. A recent study found that 7 out of 10 people aged 65 and older will need some form of long term care throughout their lifetime. Many don’t have a specific plan set aside for this.

Between 2004 and 2020, the cost for in-home services and facility services rose from 1.9% to 3.8% per year. Some care costs are surpassing the US inflation rate as an example, which means that you could face substantial long term care costs.

Factors that can contribute to rate increases for long term care includes supply and demand, wage pressures, personal protective equipment costs, labor shortages, employee recruitment and retention challenges, and regulatory changes.

This might lead you to think about retiring and living in a different state to minimize your estate planning and long term care costs. Some of the most affordable states as identified by the study include Utah, Kansas, Iowa, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Alabama, and Louisiana.

Do you need a plan for long term care? If so, the support of an elder lawyer can help you with crafting a plan that aligns with your individual needs and wishes. Set up a consultation today to discuss this further. Our NH elder law office is here to support you and your family with long term care needs.