Every day, families are struggling to care for their loved ones at home. The patient may be young with severe disabilities, special needs and nursing needs, or may be aging and unable to live alone due to dementia, confusion or physical weakness. The patient may be dependent on complex durable medical equipment such as a ventilator, and may require frequent attention from trained attendants, or they may just need the watchful presence of a caring person to assure safety. Current means-tested programs are limited in the scope of support provided to caregivers. If a child gives up their job to care for an aging parent and keep her out of a nursing home, the Medicaid/MLTSS program provides just a very modest payment through the Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) program (formerly known as Global Options).
I just came across a good article that reviews the last 20 years of federal policy concerning family caregiving.Here it is.family_caregiving_ifbrief I think you’ll find it to be enlightening.
The NJ Medicaid regulations (based on federal statute) allows an applicant to transfer their home without any transfer penalty to the child who resided with them for the prior 2 years and “has provided care to such individual which permitted the individual to reside at home rather than in an institution or facility.” N.J.A.C. 10:71-4.10(d)4. The care has to ‘exceed normal support,” the care had to be “essential to the health and safety of the individual,” and the person’s condition had to be such as to ‘require special attention and care.” In recent months, certain counties have begun superimposing extra requirements on this regulation, such as an expectation that the child not be employed at all during the 2 years, or that the Medicaid applicant’s care plan include actual 24/7 supervision. . Adult children who are going mad juggling their job and their 24/7 responsibilities for the welfare of the parent they live with then find that the agency doesn’t consider them to be the “caregiver child.” Yet the MLTSS/ HCBS program itself only provides part-time home health aides for such a person
The long-term care and health care systems need to better support family caregivers, since so many people feel that community-based care and aging in place are the preferred arrangements for their loved ones.
Call us for representation concerning Medicaid eligibility, home care planning, Medicaid applications and special needs planning ………….. 732-382-6070