Who will pay for your nursing home care?

Most people assume that Medicare pays for older adults to live in a nursing home. If this is your assumption, you are wrong. Medicare does pay for care in a nursing home but only under certain conditions. Generally speaking, this is the criteria: • First, the person has to have been in the hospital for three or more days. The three days does not include the day discharged. • Your condition requires extended care, on a short-term basis, for rehabilitative purposes. For instance, rehabilitation after a stroke. If the person who suffered the stroke is not restored to health and functioning independently, this person will require care on a long-term basis. That is what nursing homes and some assisted living facilities do. Medicare does not pay for this type of care. According to seniorliving.org, the cost of nursing home care in Ohio ranges from $7,300 a month to $8,200 a month. Who can afford that? If your thought is, "I'll just buy long-term care insurance," then think again. Just as you can't purchase home insurance on your home after it burnt down, no one will sell you long-term care insurance after you need nursing home care. The time to buy long-term care insurance is when you are younger and well. According to investopedia.com, "Every time people in their 50s reach a new birthday, the annual premiums would go up 2% to 4%. Once the person reaches their 60s, premiums jump 6% to 8% for each year of age." So how do people live in a nursing home if they don't have the money to pay? The answer: They apply for Medicaid. But you have to qualify before Medicaid will pay for your nursing home care. Whether or not you will qualify depends on how much you are worth and in whose name is on the property and other assets of value. The formula to calculate eligibility also considers if a spouse is living independently at home or not. The more a person has, the more complicated it is to become eligible for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care. It requires the knowledge and expertise of an attorney who specializes in Medicaid planning. If you would like to understand what you ought to know, should you or your spouse need to live in a nursing home, you are invited to the upcoming forum titled, "What If I Need to Live in a Nursing Home? Who Pays the Bill?" It's scheduled for 1:30-3 p.m. on July 17 at the Erie County Office Building, 247 Columbus Ave., in downtown Sandusky. The speaker is John Ball, attorney for Reminger Law Office. He will answer general questions with regard to the legal planning necessary for a person to qualify for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care on a long-term basis. An audience of 30 or more is required to justify the time of the speaker. To reserve your seat, contact Serving Our Seniors at 419-624-1856 or email mail@servingourseniors.org no later than noon on July 11. Leave your name, phone number and the name of this event. If the forum is canceled, you will be contacted by telephone by July 12 This is not a sales pitch seminar. No audience information will be shared with the speaker. Q&A Q: I'm a 70-year-old male who considers myself well-informed. I was just scammed by someone impersonating Microsoft. I allowed them to "repair" my computer, remotely. Can you please tell others about this scam? I don't want it to happen to others. The person talking to me was so nice and so convincing. The only thing that made me think twice was Microsoft asked to be paid in gift cards. Although I did pay the scammer in gift cards, it did cause me to think twice. I didn't pay him more, although, he asked for more money. A: Thank you for your question. There is a common scam that is known by investigators as a "tech support scam." The victim will get a phone call, and there will be an individual impersonating a technical support professional with Microsoft. He/she will tell you they need to fix your computer. Or you will have "warning pop-up" on your computer screen telling you your computer has been compromised. If you click on a pop-up window or a link or allowed the scammer to remote into your computer, you are a victim. Turn your computer off and leave it off. Call a local, reputable, computer service. Tell them what happened and seek advice for when you should turn your computer back on. Know this: Microsoft will never provide a telephone number to call for assistance if an error or warning pops up on your computer screen. This is a scam. Microsoft will never contact you asking for personal information or advising you that your computer needs to be "fixed." This is a scam. Next week, I will write a full article on tech support scams and go into greater detail.