So here is my question. I have been paying an in-home health company $17 an hour to bring aides into my mother's home to care for her about 40 hours a week while I go to work. I am trying to keep my mother out of nursing home as long as possible.
I have been really underwhelmed with the level of care the aides have been providing for the last 6 months or so, and it has me wondering...can I legally pay myself a similar hourly wage or salary out of my mother's own money WITHOUT it affecting her ability to go into a nursing home via Medicaid should she need to enter one in the next year or two?
I have been caring for my mother for almost 9 years and have never paid myself one cent. Just wondering what my options are.
Thanks all and happy Saturday to you.
If the answer is "yes", then you would need to put together an employment agreement, a sample of one is linked below. And keep notes of all the funds that are being used for your Mom's care, where Mom is doing the paying or reimbursing you.
https://www.agingcare.com/documents/personal_care_agreement_AgingCare.pdf
Another option may be the home. Does she own her home? Or is she stayingin yours? In some states Medicaid permits transferring the home to a child caregiver if that child provides medically necessary care for a period of two years prior to entering a nursing home. Assisted living or memory care do not qualify for that exemption.
See an attorney that is licensed by NAELA (National Association of Elder Law Attorneys) for assistance with this to ensure you mother's Medicaid eligibility will not be effected. Money well spent!
When papers were drawn up for mother's house to be put in other's names the attorney kept trying to steer the family into putting me as her caregiver so that the house would not be taken if mom would go into a home - as I would be the adult child who still needs a home etc. Family did not like that idea, because it would allow me something and maybe not them. In the end, the house does not have my name anywhere on it. However, if she goes into a nursing home within 5 years of signing such paperwork, the state can say, "you were just trying to keep from paying us - give us the value of her care in the home out of the value of that house - then you can keep what's leftover if anything is leftover...."
So be careful how you tread. Check with multiple people in agencies and also an attorney to make sure that HOW you set up payment to yourself doesn't ruin something else un-be-knownst to you.
Good luck.
But anyway...that is a whole different story for a different day...
Family members...unfortunately you don't get to pick 'em!
;/
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