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Sunday, August 17, 2008
Ohio residents who purchase long-term care insurance are now allowed to keep more of their personal assets — up to $201,500 — once Medicaid begins paying for their nursing home or in-home care.
The new spend-down limits on Medicaid and how they work with the purchase of long-term care insurance will be topics of a public forum Wednesday, Aug. 20, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Berry Room at Wright State University's Nutter Center. Officials from the Ohio Department of Aging will be on hand.
In the past, Medicaid required that all recipients spend down their personal assets to $1,500 for a single person ($2,250 for a couple) before the state-federal program would begin paying for their long-term care at home or in a nursing home.
Thanks to a new partnership between private insurers and the state, Ohio residents who purchase a state-certified long-term care policy will be able to add the value of their policy's benefits to the amount of personal assets they can keep under Medicaid or transfer at no penalty to their children.
For instance, if you purchase a policy that insures you for $60,000 in payments for long-term care, you'll be able to keep that amount, plus the current $1,500 spend-down limit, in personal assets once on Medicaid. However, you must first exhaust your insurance policy benefits before you can qualify for Medicaid coverage.
Michael Millonig, a Dayton area attorney who specializes in elder law issues, said the new partnership program, dubbed Own Your Own Future, "is good for everybody." Consumers have the opportunity to preserve more of their assets for themselves or their families as they age. And the state shifts more of the burgeoning financial burden of long-term care to private insurers who, in turn, sell more policies.
Most comprehensive long-term care policies will pay for care at home, in an assisted living facility or a nursing home, said Bob Dunn, a specialist with the Long Term Care Insurance Agency in Kettering.
Monthly premiums vary widely — from $100 a month to $600 or more — depending on the age at purchase, the health of the applicant and the extent of the coverage, Dunn said.
The average cost of long-term care in Ohio is about $68,000 a year in a nursing home, $30,000 a year in an assisted living facility and $52,000 a year for a home health aide for 50 hours per week. The average stay in a nursing home is about two to two-and-a-half years, Dunn said.
For more information on the partnership program, call the Ohio Senior Health Insurance Information Program at 1-800-686-1578, or the Medicaid Consumer Hotline at 1-800-324-8680, or visit www.ltc4me.ohio.gov/.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2437 or jdebrosse@DaytonDailyNews.com.
