Also, once the contract amount has been ”recovered” by the caregiver, it cannot be reimbursed or returned (or Medicaid would count it as an available resource for the applicant). The personal services contract is ”enforceable” so care services must be provided ”as needed” in order to be used at a later date. The services provided must not overlap with the services already provided by the assisted living facility or nursing home. What kind of care would the caregiver provide? Some examples of the type of care that falls under a personal care agreement include things like grocery shopping, medication monitoring and management, health tracking, and meal preparation. Even if the person in need of care has visited a long-term care facility, these agreements are still valid and the caregiver can continue to provide services, such as delivering .B personal belongings or cooperating with in-house medical staff. A personal service contract is an agreement between an applicant and a designated care provider that details the care provided by the caregiver to the applicant. While this designated caregiver can be any person, it is usually a close family member (p.B. an adult child of the applicant). The caregiver would provide the applicant with services that are not already provided by a nursing home or qualified assisted living facility. These may include, but are not limited to, transportation, attending doctor`s appointments with the applicant, attending meetings with lawyers, general entertainment, and the applicant`s business. Under the personal services contract, the caregiver`s payment for services to the applicant is calculated based on the applicant`s life expectancy, and then the payment to the caregiver is made as a lump sum payment in advance. The only restriction on signing a family care agreement before applying for Florida Medicaid is that the contract must be valid. That is, the caregiver must already support the prospective Medicaid applicant.

Family caregiver agreements/personal service contracts are not limited to Florida Medicaid programs. In fact, a personal service contract can also work in an SSI environment. SSI refers to social security income whose qualification is based on the applicant`s disability and limited resources. Unlike Florida Long-Term Care Medicaid (which has a five-year retrospective), SSI has a three-year retrospective period where the transfer of assets is valued at less than fair market value. Fortunately, the Social Security Administration has decided that personal service contracts can help determine eligibility for the ISS (the link is to the relevant POMS section that deals with the SSA case on this subject). There is no legal obligation for anyone (family member or not) to offer these services free of charge. In fact, this very issue was challenged and decided by the 4th District Court of Appeals in Thomas v. (in favor of using the family care agreement). Department of Children and Family, 707 Sun 2d 954 (Fla.4th DCA 1998). ”Other ways to qualify for Medicaid if you have assets are things like personal service contracts.

Personal service contracts are agreements between family members usually or other caregivers, friends and neighbors where they agree to provide services to you until your death, and in exchange for Medicaid`s fixed hourly rate, they pay you to provide those services. Well, there are a lot more technical details, but for the most part, if you`re like an 89-year-old woman, your life expectancy is probably about three and a half years. You can pay someone a lump sum to support yourself for three and a half years and withdraw that lump sum from your assets. So if you have $102,000 and you can put $100,000 into that personal care contract, you`ve now gotten to the point where you can qualify for Medicaid. Nevertheless, you were usually able to make the payment to a daughter or son for all the services they will offer you until your death, and we can qualify you very quickly. An annuity to fund a personal service contract is an immediate single premium annuity (SPIA) that is revocable. This strategy is commonly used in the state of Florida. In most cases, the caregiver is the owner, retiree and beneficiary of the policy, with the premium amount provided by the care recipient.

The personal service contract is designed to be payable when needed, so no real money should change hands immediately. The money can be transferred to the service provider the day before the Medicaid application! If the obligations outlined in the contract are not met, Medicaid will treat the funds provided to the caregiver as a gift — in other words, an unpaid reference. This matters to your Medicaid eligibility. Personal care arrangements are formal contracts – and while they can be written on the back of a towel, they create an employer/employee agreement and it is best that they contain certain provisions, like any other employment contract. While these agreements usually exist between a parent and a child, they can also be created for a grandchild, aunt, uncle, nephew, or niece to care for an older family member. This relationship can also be between spouses, but they usually aren`t because this type of agreement doesn`t work if the goal is to ”spend” excess assets to qualify for Medicaid. Since these agreements are also agreements with employees, you must ensure that tax considerations are taken into account – the caregiver must pay income tax on all funds received from this agreement. These agreements should also include language on how many hours the caregiver is expected to work and what would happen in the event of an accident. Finally, because even families can have problems, it is important to have language that protects the older person from potential abuse, whether physically or financially. As you can see, the personal services contract is a complex tool. The contract and its compliance are carefully reviewed by Medicaid. It doesn`t apply to everyone`s situation, and other Medicaid-eligible tools may be available instead of or in addition to it.

Contact an experienced lawyer for help! Contact Karp Law Firm at 561-625-1100 or email us at klf@karplaw.com. Funds provided to the caregiver under the personal services contract are considered an advance payment for services. .