Long-Term Care Funding with Daphne Davis
A big consideration in long-term care, whether it’s memory care or retirement living, is how in the world to fund it. Daphne Davis at Pinnacle Senior Placements shares some of those options today.
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*The following is the output of transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors.
The following podcast is provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio, and welcome back to answers for elders radio everyone. I am here with our Wonderful Daphne Davis from Pinnacle senior placements here in greater puget sound and she is here to share with us a little bit about long term care funding, which is a big subject. Definitely welcome to the program well. Thank you. You know, you’ve been so helpful with us of talking about the warning signs and what those mean when it’s time to help. But obviously a big consideration in long term care, whether it’s home care or whether it’s going to assist a living or memory care or anything like that, it’s families are looking this is how in the world can we fund this, and so you’re going to share with us a little bit about some of those options today. Right. Sounds Great. It is a very high concern for, I think, just about every family, whether you have a largest state or a smallest state to work from, it doesn’t matter. It’s still a worry and one of the most important things when I am guiding families and helping them know what their options are is how do we be physically responsible and monthly stated, get the biggest bang for your buck, making sure that we are using your parents money responsibly right, right, and also to give if the families a better understanding of what that money covers. I think that there’s a lot of misunderstandings in the different levels of care and every community, every company’s a little bit different on how they specially in assisted living. So there’s a lot of differences obviously in that area. So what are some of the things that you look for in funding? Well, first of all, we look at a big broad brush. Is it going to be a private pay situation on private funding that you can fund for Yourself, or we going to tap into other resources, whether those be from aiden attendance for our veterans and their spouses, or that’s from a Medicaid point of view, or maybe it’s from a long term care insurance policy. One thing that I want to let everyone know right away is that any health insurance, whether it’s Medicare or your supplement to Medicare, any of those, do not cover custodial care, and custodio care means something that’s involving room and board now, while you’re, you know, making use of those services in Roman board situations, your Medicare still may support some of the care that you need in terms of services, right, not actual hands on and that’s usually temporary. It is. Yes, yes, so if you’re in a rehab situation or or something like that, then because you’re getting at specific medical services in a Medicare funded or proved, I should say, build. Think that’s different. But looking at Kustodial Care, I’m sorry, folks, it’s got to be from the other area well. And I think the other thing that we got to talk about is long term care. And shirts a lot of people think, Oh, if I go to retirement living, long term care will cover it. Well, no, not necessarily, only the assisted living part that is prescribed by your doctor, and it isn’t only so even you know if you can, you’re perfectly capable of bathing and dressing, but you choose to have help, your long term care will not cover that. So that’s exactly right. So you have to be able to look at a couple of things in long term care, and one is Adl’s activities of daily living. Most policies, and remember every we’re going to talk in generalities today, but most policies require two activities of daily living that you need help with and those will include toileting, feeding, dressing, transferring, just basic functioning of the day. If you don’t have those, and I just now have a family that it doesn’t qualify for both of the the husband and wife, and they’re like, AH, didn’t know that. What’s going to be an issue. That’s one thing to look for. Another one is sometimes older policies, and I’m going to call an older policy something that’s written before one thousand nine hundred and ninety five. Some of those older policies that were written cover only Nursing Home Rehab type care, or they need a certain number of beds, and sometimes you’ll see a thing that says more than ten beds or or they have to have so even an adult family home would not would coverage. That’s right, would not be qualified. So or even sometimes assisted living because there’s not a doctor on staff. They’re written specifically for nursing homes. Again, those are for generally older policies that are written. Most policies now have incorporated the whole idea of assisted living and smaller care facilities such as adult family will. And even today, even more recently, I’ve heard of life insurance policies that actually have a long term care component to them. That’s right and that’s amazing, that’s awesome. Yeah, and that’s where you can contact your insurance agent and say, Hey, I’ve got this this life care or, excuse me, life insurance policy, and can I trans transfer it right now and use it for my long term care? And that is happening many times. I love that. Yeah, I love that option. So you know, obviously, when you work with a family, you’re going to ask them a lot of personal questions. And here’s the other thing everyone. This is why you bring in a professional like Pinnacle Senior placement, because Daphnitely can sit privately with your loved one, with your senior loved one, and ask the questions that they may not necessarily want to tell you about their financial situation when we or the other I’ve heard stories two ways. I’ve heard where parents are millionaires and they don’t let their kids know, and I’ve also heard the other side. They they don’t want their kids to know. How you know that off they are either. You know there. It’s there’s an element of pride there. So bringing in a professional in this time of determining the kind of care. That’s really important. But then the other side of it is is that there’s always a plan and that’s the thing. You know, what I always am an advocate for is let’s focus on what they need, not how much it costs, because whatever they need, will figure out how to make it happen, and that’s the most important well stated generally for all of you listening. You can think in terms of the larger the the community, sometimes the less flexible and funding we can have. Right, the smaller the community, the more flexible. But also another key component in looking at funding and how do I make decisions of what are the next steps is also to bring in the whole aspect if there’s disease processes and involved, and to be able to kind of project out what kind of care could we potentially need, particularly if there’s a limited amount of funding for long term care outside the home or even inside the home, because we want to maximize the buying power of their estate, whenever that estate is and be able to have the continentary care and to have that that family member not have to move in the event of funding becoming more limited. And so that’s a key component for me because at pinnacle our highest value is that our seniors in our families that we help don’t have to move again. That’s our number one thing. We are talking to Daphne Davis from Pinnacle senior placements. Daphne, you are such a wealth of information. What areas do you serve? Currently? We’re serving all the king county, Pierce County and Thurston County, but I do go up into Snahoma County. I’m here to help the families. That’s where we’re the most gifted, where I can go on the back of my hand and say I’ve got some solutions. Sure for you. I might have to do a little more research and other areas, but we’re there for you. But the Nice thing about it I have this memory when it was time for me to take my mom, you know, move her and assisted living, and of course I was only given a few days to figure that out and they typically do right and I felt like a deer in the headlights. I didn’t know anything about where I was going. I didn’t understand anything about these communities and tells to have somebody like you is important. And Guess What, Everyone Pinnacle Senior Transitions of services in their placement services is free. You don’t pay for it. They get paid through the communities that actually provide them a referral fee. So you guys don’t need to worry about there’s no downside and hiring a local expert like Daphanie, and we’re just so excited that you’re a regular part of our pro around. Well, I want to add to that one. Choosing pinnacles in your placements. Also. I’m not limited to any communities that I work with. I work with all communities and for you know, the professionals who know will not all communities will support placement agencies. That does not matter in our world. At pinnacles in your placements, though, the motto is do the right thing for the right reason. Anytime we do the same thing. If we don’t have an expert in a certain area, we go through a different network and we don’t benefit from that financially, because it’s really about helping the family. So that’s that’s exactly what well, we’re talking about funding and long term care and how to do that. I want to talk a little bit about the Medicaid piece as well. Yes, it’s because that’s an important area and, in all honesty, my my experience has has shown me that most people will have to tap into that at some point, and so it’s key to understand how that works. And just on our broad brush, you can only have a given amount of funding available to you and it’s different for every situation. So I’m not going to tell you numbers because right, Buddy’s unique. But there’s a threshold that you have to withstand and then at that point, if you’re above that threshold of assets that you have in your estate, there’s a spend down period of time and that’s we’re working with a professional such as myself. We can help you maximize that spenddown time. Again, the the goal is give quality care as consistently upholding your loved ones dignity and and respecting them. How can we maximize the buying power of their dollar? So if you know that, you know in a year’s time, in six months and three months, your parents may not be able to privately fund their long term care. Still called Peanut Pinnacle senior placements. We’re here to have a long three with you and I and from a caregiver perspective, that’s one of the reasons why I’m such a strong advocate about tracking finances separately, even from a caregiver point because any kind of transfer of money from your parent, it let’s say within a certain period of time, it’s I think it’s a five year look back, is going to be affected. I know for me it was a huge mess and getting my mom qualified and had I known to track it separately, you know, as their caregiver, it would have made it so much easier. Absolutely. You know, it kind of gives us into that area of the legal aspects of care and and having power of attorney and what’s that versus guardianship and when should that be taken care of and what are the ramifications of having it or not having it? Those are all things out on an individual basis, pinnacles, placements can can talk to you about now. Do you also just curious you, I’m sure you probably have a network of like legal professionals and financial professionals and people like that that you work with. Absolutely, that’s a part of the wetting that we do and and I want our listeners to know that that’s something that is just a source of information that I share freely with you. There’s no financial gain for anyone involved, other than the peace of mind and I sleeping at night that I know that you have gotten the services in the information from people who really can listen to your story and give you accurate information. One of the things is occasionally it can be overlooked as what is the reality of actually having buying power with the assets out on the street? On paper it looks different. Sure, legally it can look different, but what does it mean when I have, you know, sixtyzero dollars to work with? Right and and how do I maximize that buying power from a practical out in the community? Choosing A COMMUNITY OF CARE? Very good point. It it’s reality base there and that’s what pinnacle can help you with. So how do we reach you? Definitely you can reach us at eight fifty five, seven, three, four, one thousand five hundred. Is One the avenue of reaching us and another is at our website at Pinnacle Senior Placementscom. Definitely, it’s always a pleasure having you on the program thanks so much. The preceding podcast was provided by pinnacles senior placements LLC and answers for elders radio. To contact pinnacles senior placements, go to Pinnacle Senior Placementscom
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Originally published August 19, 2017