Springdale Office:

Country Club Center

4700 S. Thompson,

Suite C-103

Springdale, AR

479-750-1101

See it on a Map

Bryant Office:

4500 Hwy 5 N. Suite 6

Bryant, AR 72022

501-847-1311

See it on a Map

Fort Smith Office

3200 Rogers Ave. Suite 5

Fort Smith, AR

479-434-3531

See it on a Map

Medicaid

At the Elder Law Practice of H. Todd Whatley we understand that there are thousands of people in the state of Arkansas who have questions about Medicaid. We also understand that all of your questions won't be answered by the information on this website, but we would love to answer them in person.

If you have an appointment scheduled with us, please print off the Medicaid Check List by clicking Here before you come in.

We know that you have plenty of things to think about at this time of life, and you don't want to spend all of your time trying to get your medicaid in order. We have helped hundreds of people in Little Rock, Benton, Bryant, Fort Smith, Springdale, Fayetteville, and throughout other areas in Arkansas get answers to their Medicaid questions and help with their applications. If you live in Arkansas and need help with Medicaid or you have a loved one who needs help, please call us at the office closest to you. Our phone numbers are at the top of the screen. We are here for you and we have the experience and expertise to help.

What is Medicaid?

Medicaid is a Federal and State health program that pays the health care costs of the medically needy. There are services for home care and for long term care (nursing home).

Do my assets have to be below $2,000 to qualify for Medicaid?

Well, if you are single the answer is yes, but you do NOT have to spend it all on the nursing home and there are some ways to protect the money for your heirs.

The following is a list of things a person can own and still qualify for services:

- $2,000 in cash total

- a Home and the land attached to it (up to $500,000 in value)

- a vehicle (unlimited in value)

- household furnishings

- pre-paid burial policy (an irrevocable burial plan can be unlimited, otherwise $1500 can be designated for burial

Money can be spent on any of these items without fear of being disqualified. As a single person, that is not a huge benefit unless you want a family member to assist you and some of these items can be purchased but used by a family member or friend to assist you. Please be careful, all purchases will be scrutinized as you go through the application process. How do you get the money to your heirs? See the gifting paragraph below for a full discussion.

How does Medicaid effect a married person?

What happens when only one spouse goes to a nursing home? What is done with their assets and posessions? How is the spouse that is not in the nursing home protected? Not to worry, there are a tremendous number of things that can be done to protect assets.

First, please understand that the spouse not going into the nursing home will get to absolutely keep one half of the assets not on the above list up to $109,560. Yes, you can keep over $110,000 (yours plus the other spouse’s $2,000) and your spouse qualify for services if we start with more than twice that amount at the time of admission (snapshot date). The half that has to be spent, is then spent to benefit the spouse not in the nursing home. We can improve the home, purchase a new vehicle, household furniture, etc. If planning is done correctly, we can spend half of the assets in a matter of a month or so and practically none of the money is wasted while benefiting the spouse not in the nursing home.

Income

How does Medicaid look at income?

If you are single, DHS has a limit of $2022 per month. The Department of Human services will tell you that if you make over that amount, you will not qualify for services. That is technically true, but putting the income into an Irrevocable Income Only (Miller) Trust will correct the problem. The timing must be done exactly right on this or you can easily miss a month or more of benefits if this is not correct.

For a married couple, the spouse not in the nursing home gets to keep one half of the assets, and they also get to keep a minimal amount of income. That amount $1821.25 (this is the new number as of summer 2009). So, the spouse not in the nursing home gets to keep all of their own income regardless of the amount. If the well spouse does not make $1821.25 each month, then they get to keep all of their income and enough of their spouses income to get them up to that amount.

What if both incomes do not come up to that amount?

We then request that the Department allow us to keep more than one half of the assets to use the interest off of that money to get the income up to the minimal amount. There are also certain circumstances that will allow us to raise the minimum income amount but that is very case specific.

Gifting. Don’t do it!!!!!! (unless you REALLY know what you are doing!)

The Department of Human Services penalizes gifting by dividing the amount of the gift by the average cost of nursing home care in Arkansas for that year. As of April of 2009, that amount is $4348. So, if you make a $44,000 gift, then when divided by 4348, you have a 10 month penalty. That means that you will not qualify for services for the next 10 months when the penalty begins. In the good ‘ol days, that penalty started when the gift was made. However, since February 8, 2006 Congress has made the penalty “float” for up to five years. The penalty starts when the applicant would “otherwise be qualified”, which means in the nursing home and broke and applies for Medicaid. Who pays for the nursing home for that 10 months?

Don’t gift unless under the advice by an attorney who understands the new penalty period calculation and is willing to do the application process with you.

The Application Process

The Medicaid application process is a time consuming and paper intensive process. However, in many situations, the family can do their own applications with no problem. However, my office has found that most people do not want to do the application especially when any sort of planning has been done. The law requires a face-to-face meeting with the caseworker to discuss the issues with the application. I generally do not have to do the meetings for my clients but only because I have done almost 900 applications.

Estate Recovery

There are many questions about how the value of your assets might affect your eligibility for Medicaid.  Many people that we talk to feel that because they have an expensive home, they may not qualify for Medicaid, but this isn’t always true.  You might be surprised to discover that you can still qualify for Medicaid even if you have an expensive home (Valued up to $500,000).  This is because of the estate recovery laws in Arkansas. 

What is Estate Recovery and how does that affect my Medicaid benefits in Arkansas?
To put it simply, when a Medicaid applicant dies, the state of Arkansas will go to that person’s estate and say “We’ve spent money on this person, and we went to get some of that money back.”  That expensive house is how the state will recover that money.  As the house goes through probate and gets sold, any proceeds go to the state first, and then proceeds will go to the family next.

Can I protect my house from going through estate recovery in my will?
Regardless of what your will says, the state of Arkansas is still first in line to recover proceeds from the estate. 

Are there any exemptions or exceptions to estate recovery laws in Arkansas?
There are a few exemptions to estate recovery laws.  In these cases, the state would not receive proceeds from the estate as it goes through probate.  These exceptions are as follows:

• If the will designates the house to a disabled child
• If the house is the only asset of the beneficiary
• If the deceased has children under the age of 21
• If the home is still occupied by the deceased’s spouse
• If there is a child who lived in the home for at least two years prior to parent’s death, and that child living there prevented the parent from going to a nursing home