Get Qualified for Medicaid with our Houston Medicaid Planning Attorney

At Your Legacy Legal Care, we will work to ensure that your needs and goals are met both efficiently and effectively. We can address a wide range of Elder Law concerns, such as:

• Advance directives (health care proxies, living wills)

• Long-term care planning

• Finding the right nursing home/assisted living facility

• Medicaid eligibility

• Special needs trusts

• Asset protection

We believe that every life has value and that the most vulnerable members of society deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Our elder law attorneys will work to protect your legal rights so that you will be comfortable in your golden years.

People may need Medicaid assistance to support their care at certain times in life. A common example is someone with income or assets exceeding Medicaid’s allowable limits; however, a medical situation arises that requires short or long-term care. This could leave them spending most of their hard-earned income and assets on treatment before Medicaid assistance will be approved.

To qualify for Medicaid, an applicant’s income is beholden to a certain threshold. In short, you can only make so much per month.

We work diligently with our clients to get them approved for Medicaid while safeguarding their assets.

No matter your income or assets, there are options.

Our team of Medicaid Lawyers is skilled in assisting individuals to get approved for Medicaid to be able to get the care they need.

We will always put your best interests first and treat you with the kindness and compassion you and your family deserve. If you or a loved one has concerns about long-term care planning, you are not alone.

Options for Long-Term Care

Long-term Care Insurance

Provides coverage for personal and custodial care at home or in a nursing facility. However, such insurance is not a cure-all because individuals with pre-existing conditions may not be eligible, premiums are expensive, policies have high deductibles and the services covered varies from insurer to insurer. It is important to work with an experienced elder law attorney so that you obtain a long-term care insurance policy that is affordable and best suits your needs.

Planning for Incapacity

Our elder law attorney is also dedicated to ensuring the needs of our clients are met if/when they become incapacitated and are unable to make decisions about their finances and healthcare. Our attorneys draw up statutory durable powers of attorney and advance medical directives, including medical powers of attorney and living wills.

Medicaid Planning

Despite being the largest payer of nursing home care in the country, Medicaid in only designed to provide medical assistance to low-income individuals and those who are 65 or older. While many elderly individuals have income and assets that exceed the eligibility threshold for Medicaid, one way to obtain such benefits is by taking advantage of irrevocable trusts.

For Texans who do not meet the income requirement, one alternative is to establish a qualified income trust, commonly referred to as a Miller Trust or “QIT.” In this arrangement, any income over the threshold is transferred into the trust, which can only be used for certain limited purposes. It is important to note that there is a 5-year “lookback” period for determining Medicaid eligibility. The lookback is a set period of time prior to the individual’s application, during which the state agency that administers Medicaid reviews all the financial transactions that the applicant has made.

Moreover, a Miller Trust can only be used to hold income, not assets, in which case our legal team can help you explore other options. Some of these options include creating marital property agreements to transfer property between spouses or transferring a residence into an enhanced life estate deed (Lady Bird deed) to avoid Medicaid estate recovery.

We help families locally within and around Houston when they need to handle issues or an estate for a family member within the state.

Locally families seek our help from Galveston County, Brazoria County, Matagorda County and throughout Harris County.