Insurance pay 20 days. Mom was fine before the stroke. Now she’s been in the hospital on and off since October 2021 and we can’t afford home caregiver or nursing home. Her advantage Medicare only pay for 20 days of therapy in nursing home. I feel if we sell her home she will have nothing to look forward to. Please help me do what’s best for her. Our bedrooms are upstairs and we don’t think we can build on quickly enough before her days are up at nursing home. She gets $1600 ss benefits a month and her home still has a mortgage
Talk to the Social Workers at the hospital.
Without money in her name the application to medicaid will take all of the benefits coming to her. There will be no money for mortgage, for insurance, for repairs on the home, so it is basically lost OR.....................
you can sell it now for her if you are her POA, and your documents give you that right; thereby she will perhaps a better placement regarding care, and will spend down the funds from home equity before applying for medicaid.
You would do well to coordinate with the social services/social worker at facilitiy and with the advice of an elder care attorney regarding all of mom's assets and her placement into care.
Also, check your Mom's insurance. My Mom had similar circumstances, and her Medicare Advantage plan covered Home Care a few days a week. (Nurse and PT) for 60 days. Then she was able to renew it for another 60 days. There was no charge for her, not a penny for that. If she has Medicare Advantage- then she'll be able to access Home Care pretty easily with a Doctor's prescription while she recovers. Call her insurance company and they can go over the benefits with you. My Mom has gone through numerous rounds of Physical Therapy at no out of pocket expense to her. They come right out to the house.
And, if you're worried about upstairs bedrooms and you want to take her home for awhile - you can have Medicare pay for a Hospital Bed and set up an area in your living room or den downstairs.
Talk to a Social Worker at the Hospital if she's still in there now, if not - then Area Agency of Aging is a great start.
But, if you decide to do that - remember that's a lot of responsibility. My Mom is paralyzed/bedbound and I've been Caregiving since 2020. It will use up all of your time and even your sleep time. And there's a lot of lifting and no unpaid help available for any days off.
I don't know how you would be able to take care of her at home. If it were me, I would put her in a nursing home that accepts medicaid. Her house will have to be sold eventually so you might as well do it now. If she will net quite a bit of money from the home sale, you might be able to put her in a better place until her money is getting depleted and then switch to a medicaid facility.
I hate reading about the children of our elderly that live with parents and if something happens to them they have no idea what they will do. A very good reason to keep living your life without depending on an elderly parent.