I visit my mother every other day at her nursing home. She is in a facility that is 30 minutes away. The amount I spend on gas is starting to pile up. I am her Power of Attorney and eventually I will need to apply for Medicaid to keep her in the nursing home. We are having to spend down her money and it will be several months before we can start applying. I don't want anything to hurt her chances of being approved. I feel horrible about this but would I be able to get gas help through my mother's money. I don't want to visit less. I feel like my presence so often at the nursing home helps with the care she gets.
It appears you have had your question answered.
Now I have a question for you. Have you considered investigating legal ways to transfer funds away from your mother prior to application for Medicaid so there will be funds to support her while receiving benefits?
The particular methods available will vary by state. In Florida there are several methods available to my clients including transferring funds to a Supplemental Needs Pooled Trust, establishing and funding a Personal Care Agreement, purchasing an interest in a pooled income producing real estate arrangement.
All of these methods DO NOT result in the incursion of a Medicaid eligibility penalty (aka "5 year look back").
Please seriously consider this as you will certainly need funds for mom's support while she is on Medicaid. The above arrangements will provide for that.
I believe you will find you can be paid to be her POA, but not exactly that, you can be paid to do her accounting, etc. You can use that money for gas. If she was at home and you were in charge of her care it would be more flexible but because you are not actually physically caring for her it's more touchy.
Have you prepaid her funeral?
If not, please do, it is money allowed to be used pre-medicaid but you can't get it back if it's gone.