When Does it Pay to Have an Attorney Complete Your Medicaid Application?

Why Hiring a Professional Helps Provide Peace of Mind

Navigating the Medicaid application process can be difficult. There are many confusing rules that even the county workers may not be fully versed in, and getting caught up on something can make your application take longer or, in the worst case, be denied. Hiring an attorney who specializes in these matters not only provides you peace of mind, but it will help you get the result that you need.

If you’re considering applying for Medicaid for yourself or a loved one, call us today! We can help you through this process.

What You’ll Learn From This Video

• The Medicaid application process can be a headache.
• We can help you avoid complications and receive the benefits you need.
• Hiring an attorney who specializes in these matters takes the pressure off of you!

HERE IS THE TRANSCRIPT FROM THIS VIDEO

Margaret Barrett: Some people come to us in a tough spot. They, or a loved one, has a medical condition that requires expensive care. They still have some assets that they’re hoping to protect, but they are hesitant to pay us to prepare the Medicaid application for them and when they do hire us in the end, they are glad they did.

A couple in their fifties recently hired us. They wanted to protect assets for the wife because the husband had a medical condition that would require care for the rest of his life. The husband was really resistant to spending money on attorney’s fees, but the wife knew that she would be the one most protected and so they did agree to move forward with us.

We determined that the husband was eligible for the CADI Waiver Program, one of the Medicaid programs for people who are under 65. A nice thing about CADI is that the spouse’s assets are not counted, So we saved this family a lot of money by transferring assets out of the husband’s name and into the wife’s name alone. Then, when all was ready, we applied for CADI Waiver Medicaid with the county.

We were so surprised the county called us right away to say the wife had to spend all her assets on her husband’s care. What’s more, they were going to impose a penalty on all the money that the husband transferred to the wife. This is completely contrary to all the CADI rules.

We prepared a response to the county, explaining the rules and providing four documents, backing up what we were telling her. She responded by saying that we were wrong. She had talked to her supervisor and the state, and that the wife was just going to have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars before the state would pay a dime.

We knew they were wrong. Our client was eligible for government benefits right now, and his wife needed their funds for her own future, her retirement and potential illness. We did not want our clients to have to spend money going to court to appeal this silly ruling, So we got assertive. We wrote a letter to the county and copied the county attorney, pointing out the rules and asking why they didn’t apply to our client.

The very next day, the same worker called back with a very different tone. She said she had never been trained on the CADI Waiver Program and neither had her supervisor. She had never read the Department of Human Services Bulletin directly on point, and now that she read it, she realized that it seemed to support our position. She was going to check with the state and verify that we were right. And we knew of course, that they would confirm that.

If the wife had not convinced her husband to spend a few thousand dollars with our firm preparing the Medicaid application, it is likely they would have followed the wrong advice from the county worker. They don’t know the complicated CADI Waiver rules. They would’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars before the state ever spent a dime for care, when in fact the husband was eligible right now.

We know the rules better than the county workers know the rules and we are on your side, advocating for you every step of the way, to make sure you get your fair share. Don’t be penny-wise and pound-foolish. Hire us to do your Medicaid application.