What is a Medicaid and Nursing home assessment?

Attorney Tom Olsen: There are people out there listening right now, they're going, "Gosh I've got this asset, I've got a rental home, I've got some stock, I got an IRA. I got an annuity, I got a vacation home. How am I going to be protected from nursing homes and Medicaid?" Well, everybody's circumstance is a little bit different, but if they're worried or they're concerned about what tools that might be available to them, we have a tool for them as well.

Attorney Robert Hidock: Tom, we have, I like to call it, an Olsen exclusive. It is our Medicaid assessment. I will meet with them, I will find out every asset they have, what their income is. I will customize a plan individually to them, I will tell them if they're over income, and it'll tell them what we're going to do for that. Then I will go through every asset, and I'll say, "That's a countable asset. This is not a countable asset." When all is done, they will have a blueprint to follow, and they'll know exactly what plan that needs to take place that we'll help them with.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Robert, my understanding is that you do that Medicaid assessment, it's only $500. Whether a single person or a married couple.

Attorney Robert Hidock: Exactly. If you're married, Tom, I like to think it's the best deal, because I do two sets of planning. Spouse to spouse, and then spouse to children.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Folks, a Medicaid assessment, if you're worried about your situation, depending on what your assets happen to be and want to know the answers of how we might protect your life savings from nursing homes, Robert can do a Medicaid assessment for you, it's only $500. Then you put it all in a notebook, it's all laid out there. We like to call it a blueprint. You can tell your kids about it and say, "Kids, if mom or I never need to go into nursing homes, hey, here's a blueprint for you. Pull out this notebook, and it's all set here in place about what tools we should be using to protect our life savings from nursing homes."

Attorney Robert Hidock: I'm very amenable. We will bring them in, I will go over the notebook with them. Sometimes we've even conference-called their children in from a different state so they can listen to my presentation to them. When they receive their binder, it's not like I just handled the binder, I probably spent a good hour with them going over every part of their assessment, and so they feel much more comfortable. I think that's half the battle.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Robert, of all the Medicaid assessments that you've done, have some of those clients had long-term care policies in place?

Attorney Robert Hidock: They have.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Would part of that assessment be a review of that long-term care policy, and laying out for them what the benefits of it are?

Attorney Robert Hidock: Absolutely. We talk about if it's a reimbursement policy, we talk about if it is an income policy. We also talk about the effects it will have on their Medicaid eligibility. If they have any questions, I'll just go through their policy and I'll tell them what they can expect out of it.