PreArrangement Subpage - Medicaid / SSI

www.OGMHognj.com
PreArrangement - Medicaid/SSI

Ocean Grove Memorial Home
118 Main Avenue, Ocean Grove, New Jersey 07756

Thomas J. Saragusa, Manager
N. J. License No. 4036

VOICE 732-775-0434 - - OGMHognj@aol.com

Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid

The Supplemental Security Income Program and Medicaid are federally funded assistance programs that supplement the income or pay for qualified services provided to eligible recipients whose resources are limited. SSI and Medicaid programs do not pay funeral expenses! The program is funded through the federal government but is administered through state and county agencies like the county's Division of Social Services.

The original Medicaid Program was called Medical Aid to the Aged, then CCPED and has evolved through a long list of names and acronyms to be part of today's federal and state network of assistance programs that provide assistance to the elderly and others with limited income and resources.

Recipients of SSI and Medicaid may also be familiar with the terms Work First New Jersey and General Assistance, once referred to as welfare.

To be eligible for SSI and Medicaid benefits, applicants must have limited resources, including both liquid assets, such as cash and limited income. Although the two programs have different criteria for eligibility...generally SSI allows lower limits of financial income and Medicaid is tapped before Medicaid. To be eligible to receive Medicaid, applicants must have very low amounts of cash available to them, amounts too low to allow for today's funeral costs.

In it's wisdom, "government" has allowed potential applicants to prepay for their funeral expenses as they "spend down" their assets to the level of eligibility for these programs. The "asset" of a prepaid funeral plan is "excluded from being counted as a spendable asset" but only if those funds are set aside by being placed in an irrevocable trust, never to be refunded in cash, i.e., one's own funds to be held for the inevitable expense of one's own funeral expenses. In allowing for the setting aside of one's own money for this inevitable expense, the "government" protects it's resources and applicants can be assured of the type of dignified final services that they choose...and can pay for with their own funds...prior to the time that those funds are gone.

Are you going on SSI/Medicaid?

You may prefund your funeral without aversely affecting program eligibility.

To be eligible to receive Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income benefits, an applicant's "countable resources" must be below a specific level ($2,000.00 at the time this page was written)...a successful applicant must have limited countable assets to be eligible to receive benefits.

Countable assets are those that can easily be converted into "spendable" assets, e.g., cash (specifically, all bank account funds), all cashable life insurance policies and annuities with a cash value and all other "liquidatable" assets, such as stocks and bonds.

New Jersey law permits SSI/Medicaid applicants and recipients to designate irrevocably assigned insurance, irrevocably assigned annuities or irrevocably trusted funds for prefunded funerals without adversely affecting the applicant/recipient's eligibility to receive Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income Payments. Once designated as irrevocably trusted for funeral purposes, these assets are no longer liquid (no longer cashable) and, therefore, no longer countable as a spendable asset.

Resource Exclusion
Irrevocably trusted funds and irrevocably trusted insurance policies are considered to be "excluded from being counted as a resource (asset)" in the process of determining the eligibility of an applicant/recipient to receive Medicaid and SSI benefits.

New Jersey allows anyone applying for SSI/Medicaid to "set aside funds to prepay their own or their spouse's funeral." These funds, which must be made non- refundable, offer SSI/Medicaid recipients the peace of mind of knowing that they will have the kind of funeral they desire and that their loved-ones will not have to deal with the financial burden of paying for their funeral expenses.

See also the Resource Exclusion INFOsheet.

Prepayment Considerations
If you or a loved one will be applying for SSI/Medicaid or N. J. General Assistance, making and prepaying for funeral arrangements makes sense financially. You meet with a licensed funeral director to discuss and select the services and merchandise you want and that meet your ability to pay for with the funds you currently own...before you must "spend them down" to qualify for Medicaid assistance.

The funeral director then sets up an irrevocable account wherein that money or insurance remains in trust and can only be used for the funeral expenses of the depositor...YOU! It can't be transferred to someone else nor used for any other purpose...only for your funeral expenses. You retain those values that those funds represent (but not the ability to convert those assets into cash).

Benefits
Prepaying your own funeral prior to SSI or Medicaid acceptance allows you to arrange and pay for the funeral of your choice:

Before assets are used up for medical care.

Before your assets are reduced to SSI or Medicaid eligibility levels.

You continue to possess that value, to be used at a time that it is needed because neither SSI nor Medicaid will pay for funeral costs. If you don't have your funeral costs set aside, no funds other than those of your survivors or, perhaps, if eligibility is determined at the time of your death, limited county Division of Social Service funds may be available.

The funding method that the Ocean Grove Memorial Home primarily endorses is via the New Jersey Prepaid Funeral Trust Fund (NJPFTF) which is administered through the New Jersey State Funeral Directors' Association and has been active since 1981. Learn about it by clicking the Trust Funds link, below.

Links to SECONDARY PAGES in this Master PreArrangement Partition:

Trust Funds - Sure Trust - Organ Donation - FAQuestions - Philosophy - PrePayment

Back to the PreArrangements MASTER Page - Site Table of Contents