Elder Care Support @ Work

Today I met with a social worker, Maureen Kelly, who is employed by UC Berkeley (my employer). She specializes in elder care counseling (for caregivers) and understood every aspect of Bill's situation that I shared with her. Such counseling is a wonderful benefit offered by UC to its employees.

Maureen and I talked through some possible next steps and I came away with more knowledge about my options, and how to navigate the Medi-Cal and VA benefits that might be able to help my dad age in place (w/ assistance) until it comes time to move.

A big problem is that Bill was disqualified from Medi-Cal because of a very small overage of money in his checking account. First step might be to appeal Medi-Cal's denial (find a way to spend the extra $2K on health/care related expenses) and get him benefits. Then, he would be eligible to receive in-home assistance until it's time to move. Once he sells El Zoco, however, he'd have some cash that would disqualify him from Medi-Cal. He should retain his VA health benefits always, to cover gaps in future care.

Some ideas for blowing through the $2K so that he can be qualified for Medi-Cal.

1. Pay for an assistant to come give Bill relief a couple of days a week (say, $75/day, twice a week).
2. Send Bill to a senior daycare program -- get social time, stimulation, support, exercise, phys. therapy.
3. He cannot just give me the $2K to save for him to use later. There has to be a documented paper trail proving that he spent the money on care-related expenses.

Maureen also referred me to a campus workshop next week that deals with the very issues of health insurance and care coverage that I'm dealing with right now.

One thing I learned is that "A Place for Mom," a referral service that I have signed up for, are greedy bastards and won't allow me to work w/ another referring organization for a year. UC Berkeley has free referral services for employees, and I could be using this service rather than A Place for Mom.

I also learned that Medi-Cal does not pay for assisted living, but they DO pay for full-on nursing hospital care, if a client has no money. So, until a person is totally unable to take care of himself, they are pretty much on their own (payment wise), with some relief available through VA's "Aid and Attendance" benefit (about $1100/month).

Got the name of a elder care (gerontologist) consultant, Alan Morgenstern, whose services could help recommend a "board and care home" in the East Bay. This is an alternative to an assisted living facility that's basically a house where a few senior residents live and receive care from staff on site.

There are a lot of financial pieces to Bill's situation, and having an expert guide me through some options and outline possible next steps was tremendously helpful!