Blog, Chicago Elder law attorney
Read The Nursing Home Contract BEFORE You sign it!|Illinois and Chicago Elder Care Attorney Blog
Nobody would buy a home without being represented by a real estate attorney. So, why is it that most seniors are signing nursing home contracts in the Chicago metropolitan that require them to pay $6,000-$10,000 a month, for the rest of their lives, and never give them to an elder law attorney to review until after they’ve signed them and moved in? Nursing homes in Chicago and Chicago suburbs can cost anywhere between $6,000 and $10,000 a month. That means that a nursing home contract can cost you between $72,000 and $120,000 a year! How can you enter into a contract of this magnitude without the advice of elder care counsel? Here are the risks you run in signing these contracts: 1) Losing access to the court system if something goes wrong in the nursing home. 2) Asking the senior’s children to sign as guarantors. Now the kids are liable! 3) Dictating to a senior what the senior may do with his/her own money while they are living in that particular facility and paying privately. 4) Requiring large deposits before one may apply for Medicaid. 5) Making legal and ethical asset protection planning by a senior breach of contract. Remember: some nursing homes want you to believe that a single person must be down to $2,000 of assets before Medicaid becomes available. This is far from the truth. Medicaid allows for the legal and ethical repositioning of assets so that you can be at the eligible Medicaid level and still have a “rainy day fund” with which to buy hearing aids, have infected teeth extracted, buy eyeglasses, buy a TV for your room, etc. You wouldn’t buy a home without having a competent real estate attorney representing you, right? So, why would you buy into your nursing home without a competent elder care lawyer representing you before you sign the nursing home contract? Stay tuned, more to come. Anthony Ferraro