What is a Medicaid Waiver?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Got a question that I forwarded on to you from somebody that Mom is still at home but we talk about what's called a Medicaid Waiver, where Medicaid will send somebody into Mom's home, I think up to 30 hours a week, and provide some assistance to her and I sent that on to you, and were you in touch with that lead?

Attorney Robert Hidock: Oh, I was definitely in touch with her and the process has it's still institutional care, Medicaid. Everybody thinks, oh, a skilled nursing facility or nursing home, but an actual with that waiver, you're waiving the skilled nursing portion of it, and you are able to receive home health care at home. Unlike the nursing home, though, it's not 24 hours a day and there is a screening process to actually receive the benefits at home. That's why there's usually a waitlist, there's a rating system where you score between one and five, if he's four, or five, the greater priority for home health care.

Attorney Tom Olsen: If you think about there's a transition and the transition is elderly parents living at home, and maybe then they get this Medicaid Waiver where we there's Medicaid sending in some help on a regular basis and then, maybe the next level is assisted living, where you can still get Medicaid to send in some assistance for 30 hours a week and then eventually into the nursing home, also known as the skilled nursing facility.

Attorney Robert Hidock: The beauty of it, Tom, is actually when you're on the waitlist for the home health care. You don't have to be Medicaid compliant, you only have to be Medicaid compliant when they call you off the list and then once you're Medicaid compliant for the waiver, if you ever have to transition into the full-blown skilled nursing facility, you don't have to be Medicaid compliant again, because you already are. You don't have to go through that process.

Attorney Tom Olsen: I think the lesson we learned out there is that somebody listening with an elderly parent who says, "They're doing pretty good, but I can see it will start-- small concerns I have with Mom or Dad being in their home by themselves," they might apply for this Medicaid waiver today, knowing that Mom or Dad may not need it for a year.

Attorney Robert Hidock: Yes, that would be extremely proactive and it would be what we would really recommend when someone comes to us for a consult or one of our workshops or Medicaid assessment and we talked to them about this might be something that you need to consider now for something that might happen a year or two from now, at least you're on the list.