You asked about nursing home residents' rights. Your constituent sold her house to pay her $ 5,000 monthly nursing home costs. This money will run out in three years. You asked how she could address this problem and whether her $ 1,200 monthly income from Social Security and a pension would prevent her from seeking assistance.

NURSING HOME PATIENTS' RIGHTS

Connecticut statutes delineate a “Patients' Bill of Rights” for nursing homes (CGS § 19a-550), which covers numerous items. The bill of rights must be posted in the facility and given to all residents upon admission. The document discloses, among other items, patients' rights to be fully informed of the rules they must follow; all services available; related charges; of their right to quality care, to choose their own physician and be fully informed of their medical condition by the physician, to participate in planning their medical treatment, to be free of restraints not needed for treatment of their medical condition, and to be free of coercion; and their rights concerning room transfers and privacy.

The full Connecticut Nursing Home Bill of Rights text (enclosed) is also available at: http: //www. cga. ct. gov/2005/pub/Chap368v. htm#Sec19a-550. htm. The Connecticut Elder Law website also contains descriptions of various aspects of the nursing home patients' bill of rights at

http: //www. ctelderlaw. org/NursingHome/nf. care. htm#Overview

http: //www. ctelderlaw. org/NursingHome/nf. discharge. htm

MEDICAID FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FOR NURSING HOME COSTS

From your letter, we presume your constituent is single. Since she is paying privately for her care now, when she is about to run out of money, she needs to apply for Medicaid from the Department of Social Services (DSS). Most nursing homes accept Medicaid, but a very few do not. Usually, the nursing home staff will help with the applications, and it would be good to begin the process a few months before she expects to run out, as processing the applications at DSS takes some time.

The constituent's total Social Security and pension income of $ 1,200 a month should not be a barrier to receiving Medicaid once she has reduced her assets to $ 1,600 or less. To determine Medicaid eligibility for a nursing home patient, DSS compares her income to the cost of the nursing home. If it is not enough to cover that cost, she will be eligible. In this situation, her income appears to be well below the cost of the nursing home. She will have to pay most of her monthly income to the nursing home; Medicaid will pay the difference. DSS also excludes a number of items from the $ 1,600 asset limit, such as the cost of burial plots and funeral contracts.

DSS will also “look back” at her finances to determine whether she has made inappropriate transfers for less than fair market value in the past three years (five years for trusts). Federal law recently extended this look-back period to five years for all future transfers (see OLR report 2006-R-230. People who do this may be subject to a penalty period (ineligibility for Medicaid for a period of time related to the value of nursing home services the amount of transferred assets could have paid for).

We would caution that Medicaid is a complex program and many people consult attorneys specializing in elder law concerning their rights.

DSS's publication “Long-term Care Issues and Medicaid 2005,” discusses eligibility questions and asset exemptions (enclosed). Some of the numbers change annually and a new 2006 version should be available soon, but the $ 1,600 asset limit and the limits for various allowed assets are not adjusted annually. The document is available at:

http: //www. ct. gov/dss/lib/dss/PDFs/LTCIS012005. pdf.

HN: ts