Getting the Government to Pay Family Members For Eldercare at Home
21% of the U.S. adult population provides unpaid
care to seniors or adults with disabilities. Most of these adults are family
members of the person needing care.
These family members usually pay out of pocket for the care of their
loved one. Little do caregivers know
that the government can cover care giving financial burdens.
Some 44.4 million adult caregivers — or 21% of the U.S.
adult population — provide unpaid care to seniors or adults with disabilities,
according to a 2004 study by the National Alliance for Caregiving in Bethesda,
Md. On average, those caregivers provide 21 hours of care a week and the
average length of time spent providing care is 4.3 years.
Over the years, the National Care Planning Council has
received many public requests. A number of these requests have been from family
caregivers who had to cut back on their employment or even quit their jobs in
order to take care of one or both of their parents. Invariably these caregivers
assume there is a government program that will pay them to provide this care.
Only recently have we become aware of some programs that will pay family
members. These programs are not publicized and the public is largely unaware of
them or how to receive them.
Money Follows the Person?MFP (Self-Direction in Care):
In recent years, some state Medicaid programs have been
experimenting with the idea of providing a budget to elderly Medicaid
recipients. This money can be used to hire family or friends to provide care at
home. Most of these programs are very limited, and there are waiting lists for
them. Also, the amount of money available may not always be enough to
compensate a family member to provide full-time care in lieu of maintaining
employment.
The attitude of our government is quickly changing and there
is now a new initiative to provide income for family caregivers. The Deficit
Reduction Act of 2005 allocated $1.4 billion — the largest demonstration grant
in Medicaid history — to a program called “Money Follows the
Person.” This program is designed to transition individuals receiving
Medicaid and who are living in institutions, back into the community. In 2007,
31 states received their portion of the grant money pie to begin demonstration
programs offering more choice in care besides an institution. Most of these
state programs offer a concept called “self-direction” which allows a
budget to be established by Medicaid for the care recipient. Self-direction
allows the care recipient to spend this money hiring any caregiver of choice
and this typically includes friends and family.
Unfortunately, this is not a widespread benefit for elderly
Medicaid recipients and in addition only applies to bringing elderly people out
of institutions and back into the community to receive care. Over the next five
years, only 34,395 elderly care recipients nationwide are expected to be
transitioned to community-based care through this program. Even though this
represents a fraction of the elderly, who over the next five years are expected
to receive Medicaid services in institutions, there is still a possibility for
the family to apply for one of these programs and to have the government pay
for their care services.
Using the Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit:
A totally overlooked source of money to pay family caregivers
to provide care at home is the aid and Attendance Pension Benefit. This money
is available to veterans who served during a period of war. Pension money is
also available to the widows of these veterans. This benefit, under the right
circumstances, can provide up to $1,843 a month in additional income to pay
family members to provide care at home.
It also comes as a surprise to many people that about 33% of
all seniors could qualify for the aid and attendance benefit. That’s how many
veterans or their surviving spouses there are in this country.
Getting the aid and attendance benefit to pay for family
caregivers is not an easy task. This is because there must be a caregiver
contract in place and services for care must be initiated and thoroughly
documented before application can be made. Getting these applications approved
requires using a consultant who understands the documentation requirements.
Very few people can do it on their own.
Using Medicaid Spend down to Pay Family Caregivers:
In order to qualify for Medicaid nursing care, a person must
spend his or her cash assets down to less than $2,000. Instead of giving this
money to the nursing home and waiting for Medicaid to kick in, the potential
beneficiary can instead transfer this money to a child in return for caregiver
services. This is not considered a gift and if done properly does not create a
penalty for Medicaid eligibility. The strategy also allows Medicaid to take
over paying its portion of the nursing home costs much sooner.
As with the caregiver contracts for VA benefits, an expert in
this area of Medicaid benefits is required in order to do it right. In fact ,
the same type of caregiver agreements used for obtaining extra income under the
veterans benefit can also be used for Medicaid. A consultant who is proficient
in both the aid and attendance benefit and Medicaid personal caregiver
agreements can be of great service to the community. This contracts’ consultant
can help relieve a great deal of caregiver stress by providing funds to help that
caregiver cope with personal financial pressures.
About the author
affiliated members are dedicated to helping the American public recognize the
need for long term care planning and to helping implement that planning. The
National Care Planning Council provides materials to educate the public on how
to plan for long term care, training to member eldercare experts who help the
public plan for long term care and a forum for members to share ideas and
marketing strategies. To learn about The National Care Planning Council and
long term care visit our website at http://longtermcarelink.net
Tags: adult caregivers, adult population, adults with disabilities, amount of money, bethesda md, deficit reduction act, deficit reduction act of 2005, family caregivers, financial burdens, government program, medicaid, medicaid history, medicaid recipients, national alliance for caregiving, planning council, public requests, self direction, state medicaid programs, time care, waiting lists