30 LONGISLANDPRESS.COM • OCTOBER 2018
PRESS BUSINESS
MOVERS & SHAKERS:
NEW HIRES, PROMOTIONS
Jennifer
Baxmeyer
The new executive
director of the
Garden City-based
Cradle of Aviation
Museum and Education
Center was
promoted from
being the center’s
deputy director.
Andrew Parton
Parton is now
the president of the
Cradle of Aviation
Museum and Education
Center in
Garden City after
previously serving
as the center’s
executive director.
J’Naia L. Boyd
Boyd has joined
Uniondale-based
Rivkin Radler’s
Appeals and Commercial
Litigation
Practice Groups as
an Associate. Prior
to joining the firm, she was a senior
court attorney at the New York State
Court of Appeals.
Gregory J.
Klubok
Joining Rivkin
Radler’s Insurance
Coverage
Practice Group
as an Associate
is Klubok. Prior
to joining the firm, he was a Senior
Court Attorney at
the New York Court
of Appeals.
Robert Flicker
Corporate Synergies,
a national
insurance and
employee benefits brokerage and
consultancy, has named industry
veteran Robert Flicker Regional Vice
President of Account Management
for their Melville
office.
Jaime Franchi
The former associate
director of public
and media relations
at Long Island University and the
Global Institute at LIU is now deputy
director of communications for strategic
planning in the Suffolk County
executive’s office.
Howard M.
Dickstein
The vice president
of GEICO in
Woodbury was elected to the board
of the Deer Park-based United Way
of Long Island.
Chris Vaccaro
The former
Editor-In-Chief of
Topps Digital is
now Vice President
of Digital News at
Altice USA.
-TB
To submit to Movers & Shakers, email tbolger@longislandpress.com
UNDERSTANDING POOLED INCOME TRUSTS & COMMUNITY MEDICAID
By Ronald A. Fatoullah, Esq.
Ronald A. Fatoullah, Esq. is the founding attorney of Ronald Fatoullah & Associates, a law firm that concentrates in elder law, estate planning, Medicaid planning, guardianships, estate
administration, trusts, wills, and real estate. The law firm can be reached at 516-466-4422, or toll free at 1-877-ELDER-LAW or 1-877-ESTATES. Mr. Fatoullah is also a partner with Advice Period,
a wealth management firm, and he can be reached at 424-256-7273.
If you or a loved one are over 65 and/or disabled or legally
blind, you or your loved one may need to apply for Community
Medicaid Home Care Services at some point. This type of Medicaid
has no financial look-back period and as long as one is financially
eligible on the first day of the month the application is filed, he/she
can be approved for Medicaid benefits. Each year, the New York
State Department of Health evaluates their income and resource
standards based on the current federal poverty level guidelines.
This year, the New York monthly income allowance is $842 and the
resource allowance is a maximum of $15,150.
Medicaid generally counts gross income, however, there
are several allowable deductions and exemptions which are
backed-out before calculating countable income for purposes of
determining eligibility. Premiums for Medicare Part B (usually
deducted from Social Security payment) and any Medicare
supplemental insurance are deducted from the gross income. If
you or your spouse are still working, then the first $65 is deducted,
and then one-half of the remainder. There are also special
exemptions for income that is not counted. These include German
or Austrian War Reparations, reverse mortgage payments and
loans. In addition, payments made on behalf of the prospective
Medicaid recipient directly to the vendor and which have not been
made by a person who is “legally responsible” for the client, are not
counted as income. For instance, if an adult son made payments
to his father’s landlord, it would not be counted as income because
the son is not legally responsible for his father. Only a spouse or a
parent of a child under 21 is considered legally responsible.
In New York, private home care can cost between $20 to $30 an
hour. If an individual requires assistance 35 hours per week and
is paying a private rate average of $25/hour for care, it would cost
$3500/month to pay for private home care. Obviously, most people
cannot afford to pay for private home care services in addition to
their other daily living expenses, bills and property taxes. Even if
one tried for a while, he/she would most likely wipe out all of his
or her savings and retirement accounts; therefore, an individual
may need to apply for Community Medicaid Home Care Services.
As stated above, in order to be deemed eligible for Community
Medicaid, the allowable net income is $842 for 2018. For example,
if an individual’s gross income is $3,200, Medicaid will deduct
the Medicare Part B premium (for example $130.00) and the
premiums for any supplemental Medicare policies he or she may
be paying (for example $240.00). Medicaid also allows $20 for
personal needs. For this example, the net income is more than
$862 (approx. $1968) and the Medicaid recipient has two choices
to ensure eligibility: (1) he/she can pay toward the cost of his/her
home care services; or (2) he/she can send the surplus income of
$1968 to a pooled income trust each month and have the trust pay
his or her monthly bills out of the trust.
What is a “pooled trust”? A pooled trust is a supplemental
needs trust run by a non-profit organization. Money you put
into the trust is exempt from Medicaid, so your surplus income
is reduced or eliminated. There are annual administrative fees
associated with a pooled trust as well as monthly fees which are
commensurate with the level of your surplus income. The trust
will pay the bills you submit to them from the surplus income you
have deposited each month. Different trusts have different fees, so
it is advisable that you and your elder care attorney shop around
for the best trust to meet your needs.
There are several pooled-trust companies to choose from in
New York State. Each beneficiary (donor, ie: Medicaid recipient)
has a separate account established within a given trust. For the
purposes of investment and management of funds, the trust pools
these accounts together. Each of these subaccounts are established
by the person with a disability, a parent, grandparent, guardian, or
a court, and the trust is funded with the assets of the person with
a disability. The trust provides that, upon the death of the disabled
beneficiary, if there are funds remaining in the beneficiary’s
subaccount, the trust must pay to the state an amount up to the
total amount of Medicaid assistance provided to the beneficiary, to
the extent that the funds are not retained by the trust. The pooled
trust should be irrevocable to avoid being treated as a resource.
Once a pooled trust account is established, the Medicaid
recipient will need to deposit the surplus income each month
into the trust. He/she can submit any and all non-medical bills
such as property taxes, income taxes, heat and oil bills, electric/
gas, homeowner’s insurance, telephone and cable bills, and food
and incidentals to the trust for direct payment. No reimbursement
is allowed. The balance of allowed income can be kept and used
to pay his/her premiums for supplemental medical insurance and
any other incidental expenses.
Establishing a pooled trust may sound a bit complicated,
however, it provides the opportunity to utilize all of one’s
disposable income for his/her expenses, while still qualifying for
Medicaid and be receiving long-term home care services that he/
she may need. As always, if you or a loved one are in need of long
term care or would like to learn more about how you can plan
for the possibility of requiring long term care in the future, it is
advisable to speak to an experienced New York elder law attorney.
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