“Medicaid Home Care Success Stories-Care Coordination Can Make All the Difference,” a webinar hosted by Schneps Media that featured a discussion with experts from Cona Elder Law, informed attendees about Medicaid home care on Dec. 15.
Panelists Melissa Negrin-Wiener, Cona Elder Law’s Senior Partner, and Loren Napier, Cona Elder Law’s Medicaid Paralegal and Practice Care Coordinator, spoke about how to coordinate care to get approved for Medicaid home care.
“When someone feels a family member is in need of care in the home, we recommend that they reach out sooner rather than later because the process does take time,” Negrin-Wiener said.
The process involves getting financially approved for home care, and then getting “the right person in place” for the individual who needs care, she added.
“We see an influx of referrals around Thanksgiving or Christmas or July 4th because this is the time people are visiting their loved ones,” Napier said. “If they do need help, our firm is always available to assist through the process. Sometimes it does take months, and it takes longer during the holidays.”
The legal experts advised to have one family member advocate for the patient for home care hours and to get the patient’s doctor involved to make recommendations during the assessment for home care, which involves appointments with nurses.
They added that the assessment will involve many questions relating to the tasks that the patient is or is not able to do, and advised family members to be as honest as possible about the patient’s needs so that they can be assigned the correct number of home care hours.
The panelists went on to give more tips about these assessments for Medicaid home care, securing a long term care plan, selecting a home care agency, and the latest legal developments that family members should know about.
To learn more about Cona Elder Law, visit ConaElderLaw.com.
To view a full replay of the webinar, visit youtube.com/watch?v=xk56LD8zSUE.
