Adding to the emotional costs of that situation are the financial costs of funding a nursing home stay. But, with careful planning, it's possible to keep from losing everything you've worked for down a black hole of nursing home bills. In 1988, Congress enacted the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act to help elderly couples deal with the financial hit of medical costs. S.C. The Globe-News asked Jones, of the Humphrey and Jones law firm and an elder law specialist, to explain how the process works. First, Jones said, the spouse entering the nursing home must qualify both medically and financially for Medicaid.
Medical qualification is a given when long-term care is required.
The financial qualifications are the tricky part. Federal rules exempt a couple's home, car, a small amount of life insurance, household items and a few other relatively minor items. To get your money down to the proper level you can do three things. You can convert it into an exempt asset or resource by say, putting a new roof on a home or getting new carpet. Number two, they can simply spend it down by paying for the nursing home, or by spending it period, as long as they spend it on themselves.