Every month that passes without an approved application means that you may have to privately pay $15,000 or more per month for the cost of care.

Three things you should know before applying for Mainecare:

1.       Before applying for Mainecare nursing home benefits for your spouse or parent you should find out if they are immediately eligible for Mainecare.
2.       Before applying for Mainecare nursing home benefits you should find out whether you have unknowingly incurred a “penalty period”.
3.       Before applying for Mainecare nursing home benefits you should find out how much of your property, your savings, your IRA, your house, you can keep or protect, and still be eligible for Mainecare nursing home benefits.

When Should I Apply for Mainecare Nursing Home Benefits?

When your spouse or parent has just gone into a nursing home, timing of the application is very important. Since every additional month costs another estimated $15,000, you should determine the three essential protection features of a good Mainecare Application Plan as soon as possible. If it looks like your spouse or parent might be staying in a nursing home indefinitely, you should get a Mainecare Application Plan as soon as possible. Getting a Mainecare Application Plan is simpler than you think. But when trying to preserve the property of an applicant for Mainecare nursing home benefits, time is of the essence. Every month that passes without an approved application means that you may have to privately pay as much as $15,000 per month for the cost of care.

Should You Have the Nursing Home Apply for Mainecare Nursing Home Benefits For You?

If your spouse or parent are in a nursing home, and you’re running out of money to pay, the nursing home staff may suggest that they can help with a Mainecare application. Since a lawyer will charge a fee for this service, you may be tempted to have the nursing home submit the application. After all, the Mainecare rules are clear and simple. Aren’t they? The nursing home will not prepare a Mainecare Application Plan (MAP). They will simply gather the information and send it along to DHHS (Mainecare) in the appropriate format. The problem is, that without a MAP, without a plan to properly prepare your estate, you may be losing a lot more money than you had to. How much could you lose? Without a MAP you won’t know. The savings can easily be tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The mistake many people make is in thinking that the Mainecare rules are simple. Unfortunately, the Mainecare rules are not clear or simple. Another mistake people make is in thinking that the Mainecare application is designed to allow them to keep as much of their property as possible. Or that the nursing home will give them advice or a plan to keep as much of their property as possible. Neither of those things are true. In fact, there is an incentive for those two entities to get you to pay as much as possible. Why? Because the more you pay, the more they save. And vice versa, the more you save, the more they pay. The fact is, that only a licensed attorney has a legal and ethical obligation to try and preserve your property in the face of an application for Mainecare benefits for a nursing home. A nursing home has no legal or ethical obligation to preserve your property. Lawyers are bound by law to protect their clients. If you hire a Mainecare nursing home application lawyer, such as Penbay Estate Planning Law Center, they’ll create a MAP,  a plan based on your unique financial and family situation, designed to keep as much of the property, and also, the use and benefit of the property as possible, and still be eligible for nursing home benefits.

What is a Mainecare nursing home benefits crisis situation?

A person over the age of 65, a husband, or wife, or father or mother has had a medical emergency. They are in the hospital and about to be discharged for rehabilitative care. Or they are in rehabilitative care, and about to be discharged to a nursing home. At an estimated cost of $500per day, or $182,000 per year, with stays sometimes for more than four years, this cost can be catastrophic. How will you pay for nursing home care? If you don’t have long term care insurance, Medicare will not pay for nursing home care. Medicare pays, at most, the first 90 days of a stay in a nursing home. Sometimes less. A good use of that time would be to have a Mainecare nursing home benefits application lawyer give you an opinion about how much of your savings and property, including your house, you can preserve and still get nursing home benefits from Mainecare.

Click Here to find out more about Mainecare, how to apply & how much an attorney costs