The
death of a Medicaid recipient's spouse can affect the amount of assets the
Medicaid recipient has, and therefore his Medicaid eligibility.
Scenario: One spouse, the
institutional spouse, is in a nursing home and is qualified to receive Medicaid
benefits to pay for their care. The other spouse, the community spouse, remains
at home. Typically, the institutional spouse dies first. But what if the
community spouse passes first?
When one member of an elderly
couple moves to a nursing home, even as a Medicaid beneficiary, proper estate
planning must be done for both spouses.
Failure to plan for the “community spouse” can have unintended consequences.
The issues arising when the
community spouse dies first was the subject of a recent article in ElderLawAnswer.com titled “Staying Eligible for Medicaid after the
Death of a Spouse.”
When one spouse passes away,
especially the one not receiving benefits, it affects the surviving spouse in
many financial ways that can jeopardize the very benefits keeping them in the
nursing home and receiving the care they need.
For more information and articles on
estate planning and elder law topics, please visit our website
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Reference: ElderLawAnswer.com
(October 2013) “Staying Eligible for Medicaid after the
Death of a Spouse”