[PA] Qualifying for PA Waiver for Medicaid
Hi all, I have a quick question. My mom has alzheimer's and is needing increasing aide care. As many of you know, aide care absolutely blows through money. She meets the income level to qualify for the PA Waiver for home care assistance, but she has squirreled away savings over her lifetime, and the minimum is $9k in PA, which she is above (~200k in savings excluding her house which is valued at ~300k). In another lifetime I imagine she saved this for her children, but the reality is we need this for her care over the next few years. We prefer to have her stay at home rather than an assisted living situation, because she would rapidly decline there.
My question is, HOW do families typically do this, do they wait until savings gets THIS low ($9k) to apply for the waiver? That is dangerously low and wouldn't support her in an emergency, plus it takes time for the paperwork to go through. I was told on the phone we can transfer "some funds out" and provide a justification as to why when we apply. How much out?? I googled around and Medicaid doesn't want to see more than 19k transferred out over a 5 year period in PA.
Given your experience, around what amount is the minimum in savings one should have to apply for the medicaid waiver for in-house assistance? We can spend down what she has, and then apply, but I need to know when that should happen.
Thank you all so much. I am desperate here. I have spent thousands out of pocket over the past year because I didn't want to dig into her end-of-life savings, only to realize that we need to spend down her emergency/retirement funds completely. She has been rapidly declining and will probably burn through this savings pile quickly. If we spend down EVERYTHING, how will we fund anything going forward? clothes, food, etc? I am so confused 😞