A little over a year ago I was asked to assist a lovely lady who was needing assisted living after loosing her husband. She had been living in an apartment for years with her husband and for the most part doing well remaining independent. It wasn't until recently that she had several falls and was not able to drive leaving her to rely on family for any grocery shopping, medical appointments or even fun outing to increase quality of life. She was very lucky to have a son and daughter in law who made a point that all her needs were being met.
It was very obvious though that after her husband had passed that it wasn't safe for her to stay at home. As hard as it was to admit she knew it was time to look for more help. She needed quite a bit of oversight with basic needs that required strength and would definitely benefit from home health services to help regain any strength that her current lower extremity pain was preventing her from retaining. There was ONE MAJOR ISSUE. She had zero assets and already qualified for medicaid. Maintain Me does not get reimbursed on medicaid transitions yet they are the cases that need us the most and when able we step up and help anyways.
A month or so later and after a lot of work and time spent with Metro Medicaid Specialists and the family, she was on her way to finding a new home. Once a client is already on medicaid it is VERY hard to find any beds let alone one that is in a community that can meet all the other needs of the client, but with the relationship built with Maintain Me we found a bed! My client moved in and continued to get stronger with home health care.
A year later the family had gotten back in touch with Maintain Me to notify us that she no longer fit in to the community she was at. She had dedicated herself to home health care and was functionally back to doing most ADLs independently. When I reassessed her it was true that a smaller community was actually not the best place anymore and her independence was being sacrificed. She was still on medicaid and I had educated the family a year ago of the options that existed due to her financial barriers.
There was a larger place though that had a smaller spend down requirement that the family was willing to supplement now that their mother was progressing so well in hopes to bring back more quality and mutual relationships. A month or so later and after a tedious process to reenact her medicaid (a process the son had committed to making right after a mistake made on the long-term care medicaid side of the process) she was on her way to a larger community. Her room was in a perfect place for her to be able to take advantage of her surroundings and amenities. She was in a private studio which is almost unheard of with medicaid as a primary payor source, and being that the community was larger they were able to provide more options for dining and outings.
I wanted to take a second to thank the family for trusting Maintain Me to help with your mothers needs. Thank you for being open that she had graduated from her current living situation and for always doing whats best for your mother!
Chelsea Sweeney
RN Case Manager
Phone: 720-629-3050
Chelsea@maintain-me.com