Nursing Home Extra Spending Money

[blhowes]

Hi, I was wondering if somebody could answer a question I have about nursing homes.

My mother-in-law is in a nursing home and she called my wife this morning, pretty depressed. As with most people, before she got into the nursing home, she was pretty use to having some extra spending money to do with as she pleased. From what I understand, she was always very frugal, but she had the option to get her hair done (or whatever) if she wanted.

Now, her social security and pension checks are automatically deposited into her checking account. The nursing home takes their money, and she's left with about $80 or so spending money for the month. $80 doesn't go very far. She uses it to pay her cell phone bill and get her hair done, and that's depleted most of it. The holidays are here as well, and she's bummed she won't have any money to send as gifts.

A friend at work told to check into a free phone and phone service that she might be able to have via the government, which I'm going to check into. I told my wife I'd like to put it into our budget to give her a little extra spending money each month.


If I put the extra money into her checking account, and the nursing home saw the extra money, would they be entitled to keep that money?

 

[VictorBravo]

If I put the extra money into her checking account, and the nursing home saw the extra money, would they be entitled to keep that money?

Read the nursing home contract carefully, and watch the account like a hawk.

I don't know about your state, but in Washington, nursing homes have to be very accountable regarding funds they control. At least the statutes require it. Abuse is prevalent.

 

[blhowes]

Read the nursing home contract carefully, and watch the account like a hawk.

Good idea.

I don't know about your state, but in Washington, nursing homes have to be very accountable regarding funds they control. At least the statutes require it. Abuse is prevalent.

Yeah, I'm sure its probably the same in my state as well (the accountability).

 

[TexanRose]

Can she open another bank account for spending money?

 

[DMcFadden]

You don't supply enough details for me to answer. Is she on government aid or private pay? Does she have long term care insurance? Is the facility subsidizing her?

In my state, I lose about $15,000 to $30,000/annually on each of my residents on MediCal (Medicaid in other states). And, California just announced that they are reducing our reimbursements by $300,000/yr in the next budget.

Here is how it works here:

* The State sets the reimbursement level for each facility in each locale at a level less than you can provide decent care for people.
* Whatever the person receives (pensions, annuities, interest income, etc.) is SUBTRACTED from the pre-set level (i.e., the facility will take a loss on every MediCal resident!!!).
* The State allows each resident $35/mo for personal items and incidentals.

In our case we provide high level care with only private and semi-private carpeted rooms in our 99-bed skilled nursing section of our 400 person community. Many of the MediCal only facilities will stack people like cordwood 3 and 4 in a room to make the model pencil out. Plus the elder law community specializes in helping upper middle-class folks "game" the system and hide their assets (e.g., luxury cars, lying about returning to their homes, giving away homes to children, MediCal exempt annuities, etc.) after they provided the facility with their financials, promised to pay their bills, and signed contracts.

Back to your question: you can always agree to pay for her haircare and ask the facility to bill you for it. You can give her gifts of clothing, gift cards, etc. to use when she goes on outings.

If the place is an honest non-profit, they will be happy to help you figure out a way to treat your mother-in-law without jeopardizing her contract. We even have a full-time employee on staff who fills out the papers for people so that they can qualify for MediCal when their assets get down to the approximately $110,000 level.

If she is in a for-profit facility or if the leadership is unscrupulous, you may need to be very careful to avoid getting dinged by the gifts. In any case, I need more information to answer your question fully and most helpfully. These are merely general guidelines.

BTW, even in the BEST facilities, the constant movement in and out of rooms by law paid staff, visitors, and strangers makes it HIGHLY inadvisable to leave cash in the room of an elderly person in a nursing home. Cash is almost always a VERY BAD idea.

 

[blhowes]

Can she open another bank account for spending money?

Good question, not sure.

You don't supply enough details for me to answer. Is she on government aid or private pay? Does she have long term care insurance? Is the facility subsidizing her?

Dennis, thanks for all the information. Sorry I don't have more details, wish I could provide more, but I don't know. All that stuff was handled by my brother-in-law.

Back to your question: you can always agree to pay for her haircare and ask the facility to bill you for it. You can give her gifts of clothing, gift cards, etc. to use when she goes on outings.

I think this might be the best solution. Thanks.

 

[TimV]

Repeat: No cash!!