In Mid-April , Senior Planning Services was contacted by an attorney who was the POA (Power of Attorney) for a resident that had been in a nursing home for about a year. At the time the case was retained, the clients had thirty five thousand dollars remaining in assets and an outstanding bill at the nursing home for thirty thousand dollars.
Senior Planning Services caseworker, Devorah, understood from reviewing the case that the client would need coverage pretty soon. After a Senior Planning Medicaid Specialist met with the client’s attorney, Senior Planning Services was given copies of the latest bank statement held by Peoples Bank as well as paperwork for an Amerprise account that had since been liquidated.
The specialist was also informed about a prearranged funeral. The client was receiving $1100 in social security income and an additional $150 from a pension.

Devorah immediately got to work. The first thing she tackled was ensuring that the skilled nursing facility’s bill was paid in full. After briefing through some of the clients information and financials, Devorah understood that the client would need to be spent down to $1600 by the end of the month. This would secure an April eligibility date for the client.

Devorah needed to move quickly and she immediately got to it . She reached out to the facility for an accurate updated bill. She forwarded it to the POA and advised him to pay the facility as soon as possible to ensure that the funds were actually out of the bank account by month’s end. In a situation like this, it’s best to get a cashier’s check from the bank, or withdraw in cash. This way the funds clear the account immediately.

Devorah then requested Pension verification from the company that was administering the client’s pension. She phoned People Bank’s back office to obtain five years of the client’s checking account history and reached out to Ameriprise to obtain statements from them as well. Then, Devorah proceeded to contact the funeral home for verification of the pre-arranged funeral and to confirm that it was set up properly according to the Title XIX guidelines. Upon receiving the verification, Devorah discovered that the prepaid funeral contract was not set up properly. Devorah had the funeral home re-arrange the contract with a list of how the funds would be allocated, and had the new contract sent to the POA to sign.

Upon receiving the People’s banks statements, Devorah discovered a savings account as well. She reviewed all statements and made certain that there were no questionable transactions according to Medicaid guidelines. She also reviewed all the Ameriprise statements to make certain that all monies withdrawn from this account were deposited to the Peoples bank account. Lastly, she filled out the application and had the POA look it over and sign. Devorah gathered all documents and organized it to be mailed to the correct regional office.

CW contacted Devorah via mail with a letter requesting that the funeral contract be written a different way. Devorah reached out to the funeral home who arranged this and sent her a corrected copy.

Devorah had it forwarded to the case worker.

The approval was granted two days later.

Senior Planning Services thanks Devorah for her outstanding work.