The Connecticut Elder Law Blog

Special Needs Fairness Act Moving Along

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed an amended version of the Special Needs Fairness Act. The next stop is the U.S. Senate.

The prominent feature of the bill is that it would allow a disabled individual to establish and fund her own special needs trust, assuming she has the competency to do so. Current federal law provides a short list of persons and entities with authority to establish such "first party" special needs trusts, and the disabled person herself is not on that list. This sadly communicates a presumption that a disabled person lacks the mental capacity to set up a trust for herself when that is certainly not the case with all disabled persons. 

Click here for an online article I ran across at Chron which summarizes the legislative updates. 

What is the Medicaid "Pick-Up Date"?

A lot of my Medicaid clients get confused over the date that Medicaid coverage kicks in (also known as the Medicaid "pick up date") once Medicaid eligibility has been determined by the State of Connecticut.

The short answer is that Medicaid can start as early as the first day of the month during which the Medicaid "spend-down" was completed, assuming that there are no issues with periods of ineligibility that have been triggered by gifting during the look-back period.  So, if an applicant spends his/her assets down below the Medicaid asset limit ($1,600) on November 20th, then Medicaid coverage can begin retroactively on November 1st.

Why would it start later than the first of the month?  Because if the spend-down included private payments to the nursing home which effectively paid for nursing home care past the first of the month, then the nursing home would not need Medicaid coverage until later in the month.  So, in the above example, let's assume that the Medicaid applicant made a partial payment to the nursing home as part of her spend-down and that payment covered her up until December 10th.  In that case, the Medicaid pick-up date would be December 11th so that the payment for care would be "seamless" for the nursing home.

CT Alzheimer's Association Workshop

Just passing on yet another helpful workshop being presented by the Connecticut Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. If you are in central Connecticut and have some time on the night of November 17th, then this is a good opportunity to beef up on financial and legal issues that come with Alzheimer's Disease. 

Click here for the flier.