My Father was traveling to Dallas Texas for a visit which he got sick and was in hospital for few days and transferred to nursing home under Medicare. This is third/fourth week.
Dr recommended to transfer him to skilled nursing home under Medicaid program. He can no longer live by himself and needs care.
We think it is better we move him to nursing home in Dallas so we can visit him more often. If he is in nursing home in Texas for three/four weeks but his residency address is still California.
Can he apply for Medicaid in Texas even if his residency is in California but is in nursing home in Texas?
As one who was an out of state DPOA for TX resident mom on NH medicaid & helped deal with Louisiana resident MIL go from LA to TX and qualify for TX Medicaid here my thoughts:
first.....part A - do whatever you can to keep dad to be considered "progressing" in his rehab. Right now being on rehab is a post hospitalization mediCARE paid benefit. The facility is 100% being paid first 20/21 days and then at 80% up to 100 days by Medicare. All this buys you time to figure out if Medicaid can work and how to get him eligible for TX medicaid rules & paperwork.
Part B - Is there family in Dallas who can do the footwork needed for dad? To me this is pretty important as someone is going to need to be his new TX address (as all his financial life is going to change address to TX and its not going to go to him at the NH but to family in Dallas) & get new DPOA MPOA with that paperwork done by TX atty and notarized in TX. Out of state DPOA & legal paperwork is going to constantly pose problems.
Second -is there someone in CA to deal with the paperwork from that end? like go to dads place and be able to find his financial & old legal stuff.
If your good on the above, then next I'd suggest you ASAP look though dads finances to see if his monthly income is within TX Medicaid limits. When I did my moms it was $ 2,064 and then went to $ 2,165. Rates can change so find out the exact amount for Sept, 2016. So is he within income limit?
For assets it's 2k in non exempt assets. Is he ok for assets? Now if dad owns any real property in CA these are non exempt assets and will have to be sold with proceeds spent down first in order for him to be medicaid eligible. A home is an exempt asset but only IF it's homestead so a house in CA is not a homestead for TX. Some states allow for an exemption on ownership for a period of time if house on market. I did not have to deal with this but some of the ladies who moved with my MIL from thier New Orleans NH to TX NH due to Katrina moved back to a LA NH as they had a home or land in LA and couldn't sell it fast enough to clear TX Medicaid timetable or got stuck in post hurricane legal/$ issues so staying LA resident had to happen. Was Chaotic Crazy time.....
If its looking like dad has too much income & assets to easily clear medicaid, expect that you will have to personally sign off on a private pay contract in order for dad to stay at his facility. Maybe 8-12k a mo for private pay rates. If not, they will do a 30 day notice that dad must move. Probably allow a mo or two to go by & if you still do nothing, they will contact the state & APS to request emergency ward of the state action for dad. Court will sign off & dad gets a guardian. Family is excluded from all this but someone in the family will have the NH bill and collection to deal with. The facility's in TX are very proactive when it comes to billing & collection & having signatures of responsibilities individually by family (not as the dpoa) done unless the elder looks like a solid medicaid eligibility with no grey areas & the elder is competent enough to sign the admissions contract themselves.
Personally to me, if you have been an active participant is dads life so you have a pretty good idea of where he stands on $, property, will, investments, etc and dad is a widower and your good at being a Nancy Drew or Veronica Mars & very organized, and you live in Dallas area, well I think you can deal with the paperwork. It's going to be a part-time job from here on out as TX has annual reporting for reeligibility. But you can do it. However if dad has been quite independent so his recent 5 -7 years has huge gaps, I'd get a TX NAELA level elder law atty to shepherd all this. There are several NAELA & even CELA attys in Dallas /Ft worth area. So you have choices! Good luck.
As far as moving him, you move him at your own expense.