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If you have an elderly loved one in your life, long-term care planning can feel overwhelming and intimidating. An elder law professional can help you tackle the long-term care planning process in a way that allows your elderly loved one to get the care they need and deserve.

Here are some of the ways that an elder law attorney can help with the long-term care planning process.

Financial Strategy

Long-term care is expensive. Regardless of how carefully your family has prepared for the transition to long-term care, figuring out the financial logistics is still likely to be difficult.

Thresholds:

Most long-term care stays are funded by a combination of government programs and insurance policies. In order to qualify for these program(s), your elderly loved may need to be above or below a particular financial threshold. For instance, if your loved one has a substantial amount in their bank accounts, the cost of the long-term care facility stay might come entirely from these funds. An elderly law attorney can help you move liquid assets into protected trusts and other financial vehicles to that help them fall into the right financial category.

Power of Attorney

When someone enters a long-term care facility, they are sometimes required to effectively sign away some of their freedoms.

Family First:

Your elderly loved one should never sign a contract with a long-term care facility until it has been thoroughly reviewed by an elderly care lawyer. When reviewing long-term care contracts, your lawyer can ensure that they are not signing away their power of attorney when they move into a facility. In fact, many elderly law professionals will help families create a power of attorney agreement that grants legal authority to family members before a long-term care staff. Without this type of agreement, your family might be unable to make critical decisions for an elderly loved one if they conflict with the decisions of the long-term care administrators and staff.

Medical Costs

Many long-term care facilities make a significant portion of their profits by administering and/or facilitating medical care.

Transparency:

When your elder law attorney reviews a long-term care contract, they can also look for language about medical costs. If they find language about "administrative" or "supplemental" charges for providing medical care, your attorney can ask for further clarification and/or insert provisions to prevent the long-term care facility from charging these fees without first getting them approved by the family.     

For more information, contact a company like Law Offices of Paolo Conte PLLC.