Live in Dignity with Elder Law Services

Long-term care in a nursing home can be extremely expensive, usually costing (on a private-pay basis) somewhere approaching $7,500 per month in Southern Indiana. Figuring out how to pay for a loved-one's nursing home care can be a daunting challenge, not only because there are usually several different ways to consider paying for that care, but also because of the complex laws involving Medicaid, which is the primary government program that, out of any other, sometimes pays for a person's long-term care.  Mr. Collins' elder law practice focuses on assisting clients and their families with planning for paying for long-term care in a way that legally preserves and protects assets and income under the Indiana Medicaid program and its rules.

This type of Medicaid planning usually has two different modes: (1) crisis planning, and (2) non-crisis planning. In the crisis planning mode, Mr. Collins typically advises the client and interested family as to how a loved-one, who is already in an nursing home or who is about to enter, can lawfully save both assets and income and still qualify to have Indiana Medicaid pay for the nursing home care (this planning usually also includes advice on how to lawfully avoid or minimize Indiana's "estate recovery" rules, after the loved-one has died). In the non-crisis planning mode, Mr. Collins typically advises the client and interested family about actions and steps that can be taken now, well before a loved-one needs nursing home care, to help protect assets and income, should that loved-one later need such care; in many cases, such non-crisis planning involves the use of an irrevocable asset-protection trust specifically designed to comply with Indiana's Medicaid rules on assets.