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My mom is in skilled nursing, will need transfer to another one long term. She has a good private health insurance through AARP, no long term care insurance and can't return home to live due to medical issues that have developed since a stroke. She has recently developed pneumonia as well.

I keep hearing about "100 days" and a patient is out of skilled nursing with medicare. Medicaid sounds like a nightmare, financially and other wise. We live in California and I don't even know where to start with the idea of what to do next.

Any experience with this? Suggestions?
Thanks!

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Hi: I discuss this in my book:

Medicare Coverage of Nursing Home Expenses

Many clients are under the mistaken impression that Medicare will cover their long-term nursing home stays. If you give seminars or in client meetings, it is important that you educate the lay public about this.
In order for Medicare to cover a person’s nursing home stay, the patient must:
1. Have been hospitalized for medically necessary inpatient hospital care for at least 3 consecutive days, not counting the date of discharge,
2. Be admitted to the nursing home within 30 days after the date of discharge from the hospital,
3. Require skilled (as opposed to custodial) nursing or rehab care on a daily basis for a condition for which the patient was hospitalized, and
4. Receive a physician’s order that such care is needed.

Skilled Care. Skilled care is care that can only be administered by professional (physician or nurse) or technical personnel and which will prevent further deterioration in the patient’s health. Examples are intravenous feeding, injections, insertion of catheters, application of sterile dressings, treatment of skin ulcers, and therapeutic exercises of various kinds. Less medically intensive and critical personal care services, even if done by a nurse, are not considered skilled care.

100-Day Limit. Once in the nursing home, the patient will only be covered by Medicare for a maximum of 100 days during any spell of illness. A “spell of illness” means a period of consecutive days beginning with the first day (not included in a previous spell of illness) on which such individual is furnished inpatient hospital services, inpatient critical access hospital services or extended care services, and which occurs in a month for which he is entitled to Medicare Part A benefits, and ending with the close of the first period of 60 consecutive days thereafter on each of which he is neither an inpatient of a hospital nor an inpatient of a nursing facility.

Co-Pay Rule. Finally, even if the patient manages to qualify for Medicare coverage of their nursing home stay, Medicare only fully pays the bill for days 1-20. For days 21-100, Medicare only pays the “SNF care coinsurance” amount, which in 2010 is $137.50 (set annually by the federal government).
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Hope that helps!
K. Gabriel Heiser
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Could someone please address the pros and cons of applying for medicaid. my mother has medicare and AETNA and is being advised to apply for medicaid. Please advise. Thank you.
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If your mother can qualify for Medicaid, that could be good. Medicaid will pay for all her medical costs as well as room and board at a nursing home. There really are no "cons" other than some nursing homes do not accept Medicaid, insisting on private pay patients only, so that could limit her choice of facilities.
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thank you
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Mr.Heiser-
Thank you for taking the time to respond. My mother contracted pneumonia ,swollen right extremities and developed skin ulcers in the nursing home.Mild heart failure was diagnosed on the Xray which showed no progress was being made with curing the pneumonia. So, my mom started out in the facility because of rehab needs after a stroke and now there are many complications to both general health and viable rehab progress.
Does she need to be reevaluated and diagnosed with multiple needs for"skilled" nursing?
If she left skilled nursing, went back to the hospital for 4 days for heart failure then back to rehab would the 100 days start again?
Any suggestions are very much appreciated.
Thanks again for sharing your expertise.
Kim(caremom1)
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Yes, it definitely sounds like she needs skilled care, based on my reading of the Medicare regulations.
Based on the "100-Day Limit" paragraph, above, it appears that she would have to be neither an inpatient of a hospital nor an inpatient of a nursing facility for at least 60 days before the next 100-day period can start.
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When I review the "100-Day Limit" in my initial comment up above, it indicates that your mom must not be either an inpatient of a hospital nor an inpatient of a nursing facility for a period of 60 days, in order for a new 100-day period to start. However, it certainly does sound like she should be re-evaluated for skilled nursing.
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My 89 year old mom just went in a nursing home after being in a hospital for a week.She has aarp and medicare A and B.If she stays long term,how will it be payed.Her house was put into three sons name four or five years ago. She has no assets
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If the house was transferred at least 5 years before your mother applies for Medicaid, then she will immediately be eligible, assuming she has no other assets (a person can have no more than $2,000 in countable assets!). It will be important to find out the exact date she signed the deed to her three sons' names; it may turn out that she should wait until the expiration of the five-year period.
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Each state has their own Medicaid program. Look up Medicaid in your state. Also, social services may be able to help you. Good luck!
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I too am having the same problem with all the new changes going on...not sure where to begin. I did find this booklet on the Medicare site: http://www.medicare.gov/pubs/pdf/10050.pdf ...covers a how the system works and types of coverage. I have not been able to read through all of it but plan to. As far as the plans and pricing goes, I found a comparison tool on www.joppel.com . You can input your location and and specific coverage needs and it will show you all the plans available in your state. I need all the help I can get with this topic. Wishing you luck as well.
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Medicare and medicaid are government programs that helps you pay for long term care expenses, private insurance as the name suggest is from private companies who offer long term care insurance.
Medicare does not pay for long term care, but rehabilitative care in a skilled nursing facility and is limited to 100 days only. You can take advantage of the first 20 days because medicare pays every cent of your expense but after 20 days, you need to shoulder some of your expenses until the 100 day period. After 100 days, you will shoulder all your expense out of pocket. To be able to qualify for medicare, you should be 65 years old or above, but if you have disability or kidney disease, you still qualify for medicare even if you are younger than 65.
Medicaid is a program that pays for long term care expenses, however, you should pass a poverty criteria to qualify. The poverty criteria depends on the state where you live. Although medicaid covers your expenses for long term care services, they have an asset-recovery procedure, in the event that an individual under medicaid program dies, their property will be subjected to this procedure so medicaid can recover the expenses incurred for the person's ltc services.
Private insurance on the other hand offers long term care insurance to finance your long term care needs, however, if you already have an illness, you might be declined. You cannot insure a person who is already ill just as you cannot insure a house that is already burning.
There are other government programs that helps pay for long term care needs, you just need to better understand the requirements so you can qualify. You can get additional information about other government programs here: http://www.infolongtermcare.org/ltci-learning-center/what-is-long-term-care-insurance/government-long-term-care/
Or check the federal programs for LTC here:
https://www.ltcfeds.com/
For other information about medicaid program, check here:
http://longtermcare.gov/medicare-medicaid-more/medicaid/
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