{"id":1155,"date":"2019-04-09T16:28:27","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T16:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/?p=1155"},"modified":"2019-04-09T16:28:29","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T16:28:29","slug":"personal-care-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/personal-care-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Care Contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By: Jessica L. Estes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If\nyou currently provide care for a chronically ill, disabled, or aged family\nmember, likely you spend, on average, twenty hours per week providing that\ncare.  This is in addition to your own\npersonal commitments, which may, and often do, include managing a full-time job\nand your own family.  Not only can this\nbe overwhelming, but it can be extremely stressful.  Moreover, family caregivers usually are not\npaid, as they feel some responsibility to provide this care solely out of love\nand affection.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nwhat happens when they can no longer provide adequate care for their loved\none?  The loved one may not have the\nresources to afford in-home, assisted living or nursing home care.  And, unless the loved one has less than $2,500\nin countable assets, they will not qualify for Medicaid benefits.  Although one can \u201cspend-down\u201d assets below\nthe $2,500 limit, Medicaid does not allow reimbursement for the care you\nprovided.  If you are reimbursed and your\nloved one files an application for Medicaid benefits, that reimbursement will\nbe considered a gift subject to penalty and your loved one may not qualify for\nbenefits for a very long time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\na family caregiver may be compensated for their services without any impact to\ntheir loved one\u2019s Medicaid benefits if they have a personal care contract.  A personal care contract is an agreement\nbetween a caregiver (one who provides care) and a care recipient (one who needs\ncare) detailing the services to be provided for a set amount each month.  To avoid a Medicaid penalty, the personal\ncare contract should be written, signed and dated before you begin providing\nservices or receiving payment.  Also, the\npersonal care contract should specify which services will be included and which\nwill be excluded.  Services can include meals,\nlodging, furnishings, utilities, laundry, housekeeping, personal assistance (bathing,\ndressing, grocery shopping, transportation to\/from medical appointments, etc.),\nmedical care and costs, and materials and supplies necessary to perform the\nservices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally,\nthe personal care contract should include the amount the caregiver will charge the\ncare recipient for these services.  You\ncannot, though, be paid more than someone with your equivalent experience and\nskills who does this professionally in your general area.  For Medicaid purposes, though, the caregiver\nshould keep a log of the services they are performing on a daily basis and a\nrecord of the payments received for these services.  In the event the care recipient applies for\nMedicaid, the caseworker will want to see a record of the services provided and\nthe payments made, which should be in accordance with the contract.  As long as the services and payments are in\naccordance with the personal care contract, Medicaid will not penalize payments\nmade to the family caregiver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally,\nbecause this is a legal contract, I recommend having a qualified elder law attorney\ndraft the contract for you, especially if Medicaid benefits might be needed in\nthe future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Jessica L. Estes If you currently provide care for a chronically ill, disabled, or aged family member, likely you spend, on average, twenty hours per week providing that care.  This is in addition to your own personal commitments, which may, and often do, include managing a full-time job and your own family.  Not onlyRead More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[730,701,704,703,707,319,101,320,44,729,349,221,127,53,728,321,96,399,712,155,725,559,724,727,373,726],"class_list":{"0":"post-1155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-adequate-care","9":"tag-annapolis-attorney","10":"tag-annapolis-elder-law-attorney","11":"tag-annapolis-estate-planning-attorney","12":"tag-annapolis-lawyer","13":"tag-asset-preservation","14":"tag-assets","15":"tag-assisted-living","16":"tag-attorney","17":"tag-care","18":"tag-caregiver","19":"tag-elder-law","20":"tag-estate-planning","21":"tag-family","22":"tag-full-time-job","23":"tag-in-home-care","24":"tag-lawyer","25":"tag-maryland-attorney","26":"tag-maryland-lawyer","27":"tag-medicaid","28":"tag-medicaid-benefits","29":"tag-nursing-home-care","30":"tag-personal-care-contract","31":"tag-personal-commitment","32":"tag-primary-caregiver","33":"tag-spend-down","34":"entry"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1157,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1155\/revisions\/1157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eralawgroup.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}