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Elderly caregiver rights

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BigDaddy1115

Guest
What is the name of your state? Alabama

My friend is a caregiver for an elderly woman. She has been taking care of this woman for six years now. As part of the agreement, my friend would move in with the elderly woman and give her 24 hour care as long as it was feasible. In return, the elderly woman put her house in my friends name and gave it to her as payment for the care. (the name switch occurred about two years ago.) The elderly woman wrote out a will leaving all of her stocks, bonds, IRA's, and savings to my friend. (The elderly woman's family won't have anything to do with her now that she is having medical problems). Now, the elderly woman is progressing to the point that she needs to be in a nursing home with 24 hour trained medical staff. If my friend places her in a nursing home, she was told the state could seize all of her money and property unless they pay the daily rate (which they can not afford to do). Where does this leave my friend? Is their anything she can do to protect herself from loosing everything she has invested six years for? The elderly woman only has Medicare insurance. Please help!
 


ALawyer

Senior Member
You are going to have to speak with an Elder Care lawyer in your state.

The laws are designed to prevent someone who could afford to pay for nursing home care on his or her own to give away his or her assets so that the state has to pay for it. And that makes sense -- as a taxpayer I do NOT want to pay for your friend's care. The person who gets the assets may have to give them back -- all or in part --- depending on the amount of time that has elapsed.

BUT here there really was a service performed -- your caregiver friend was entitled to be paid a fair wage, and the cost of hose wages could have depleted the assets so there would have been nothing left for the state to grab. Of course your friend would have had to pay taxes on the money she earned -- and should have done so anyway.

To get out of this you'll need a lawyer, and it won't be cheap, but it will be a lot less than losing everything. (It may be that your friend will be better off paying the costs for the nusing home for the year (assuming the state has a 3 year gift rule.)
 
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yoyoma

Guest
Your friend definatly need a lawyer for this one.......

Because.....you cannot gift a house or assets and have the sick person collect medicaid, for a minimum of 3 years .

So your friend need to keep her out of a nuring home till then.

BUT,,,,,,since she is being paid wages through the gift she has rights to it as well.

And her wages will have to be paid to you before the estate sells the house,stocks bonds etc.

So thats pretty much it.....she would need her to sell her assets stocks bonds etc, to use as payment for the nursing home until the 3 year limit.

......this is a complicated deal, since your wages are paid in exchange for the assets.

Chances are they will not come after her to pay her bills and you in turn have to sell the house.

But the AMOUNT of money is important here, she has to be destitude in order to collect Mediciad.

So how much is she worth? how much do you think she would owe you if she paid you your full rate?

How much is the house worth?

This is a MATH problem, and by answering with exact numbers you can get an idea of the outcome.
 

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