Affording the costs of nursing home care is one of the biggest worries faced by people as they get older. Paying for care is not just an issue for seniors, as younger people who have a stroke or who suffer a debilitating injury could also need to go into a nursing home. An elder law attorney provides nursing home planning assistance for people of all ages who want to be sure they can pay the high bills that go along with receiving nursing home services.
Kinghorn Law can help clients to understand how long-term care costs can get covered while protecting assets. One of the programs that our firm can advise you on is a program called Arizona Long-Term Care System (ALTCS). This is a special program administered by the state of Arizona which is intended for seniors and the disabled who live in eligible care facilities.
Contact our Tucson nursing home planning lawyers to find out more about ALTCS so you can discover more about how to qualify to receive help paying for nursing home care through this program. Our legal team can provide personalized advice and answers to questions including:
- What is Arizona Long-Term Care System?
- How can I make sure ALTCS can pay for my nursing home care?
- How does a Tucson nursing home planning lawyer help with Arizona Long-Term Care System?
What is Arizona Long-Term Care System?
Arizona Long-Term Care System is the program administered as a part of Arizona’s Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), which is the agency facilitating Medicaid coverage for Arizona residents.
ALTCS provides assistance covering the costs of nursing home care if you are a senior or disabled and need custodial care. Custodial care, or routine care required when you cannot do normal daily living activities, is the kind of care sought by most people who go into a nursing home. Custodial care is usually covered only through various Medicaid programs, not through Medicare or private insurers which both restrict coverage to limited situation where skilled medical care is essential for only a limited period. Since no other provider but Medicaid will pay for custodial care in a care facility, you may have to pay privately for it if you cannot qualify for ALTCS.
How Can I Make Sure ALTCS Pays for Nursing Home Care?
Arizona Long-Term Care System is meant to help with the costs of nursing home care only for people with limited amounts of income and with few resources. You must not have more than $2,000 in countable resources if you are a single individual who is applying to get coverage through ALTCS. If your assets (or your income) exceed maximum limits, then you won’t get covered by this Medicaid program.
When your assets are too substantial for you to be covered, you could become eligible for coverage by spending down your wealth. This would mean using your money to pay for nursing home care and even selling some of the personal and real property you own to pay for your care. Once you had reduced your assets below the maximum limit of countable resources (in a process called spending down your assets), then you could get help covering the costs of an approved living arrangement through ALTCS.
Of course, this spending down period leaves you without your life savings, which can be painful for you and your loved ones. When you work hard to earn money and acquire property, this lifetime of labor should allow you to leave a legacy. You don’t want to lose all of your assets, so you should try to find ways to try to preserve and keep safe as many of your assets as possible.
You may be able to avoid loss by working with Kinghorn Law to make a Medicaid planning to shield assets. There are ways to structure the ownership of your property so it doesn’t count as a resource, thus entitling you to coverage without the spend down. We can explain your options and help you to use legal tools for asset protection.
How Does a Tucson Nursing Home Planning Lawyer Help With ALTCS?
Kinghorn Law knows the rules for eligibility for ALTCS and we understand when Arizona’s version of Medicaid for nursing home patients provides coverage to those who need care. Give us a call to find out how we can assist you in making sure you qualify for coverage. We also offer guidance and aid when applying for benefits or when finding other ways to ensure you can get nursing home care paid for. Call now at (520) 529-4000 or contact us online to discover more about the many ways a Tucson ALTCS lawyer can help you.
