Video Summary
What is a qualified income trust? A qualified income trust is also known as a Miller Trust. The sole purpose for utilizing a qualified income trust would be for qualifying for Medicaid coverage for skilled nursing care. Does everybody need a qualified income trust, also known as a Miller Trust, in order to be eligible for Medicaid coverage for skilled nursing care? The answer to that question is no. The only reason that one would need to employ a qualified income trust would be in the event that the individual who is applying for Medicaid coverage’s monthly gross income is over the allowable threshold with respect to that program.
What is the allowable threshold? Presently, through today, for a single applicant applying for Medicaid coverage for skilled nursing care, the maximum amount of gross income you can have on a monthly basis is $2,199 dollars. That does include your Medicare premium that is usually deducted directly from your income, which generally is deducted from your social security income. In the hypothetical situation, let’s say that your gross monthly income is $2,200 per month, so you’re only over by $1. Even in that situation, you would still need a qualified income trust to be set up in order to be qualified for Medicaid coverage for skilled nursing care.
Essentially, what this special type of trust does is it diverts that excess income that you receive on a monthly basis to the trust. Where does that excess income go? That excess income will build up on a monthly basis within the actual trust account. Once the person who is receiving Medicaid coverage for skilled nursing care passes away, then the primary beneficiary of the Medicaid trust, also again called a Milled Trust or called a qualified income trust, the primary beneficiary is the state of Florida, which would be considered the Agency for Healthcare Administration.
This type of trust does allow a secondary beneficiary, so you could potentially put your children or your spouse or any other person that you would like to provide this additional excess income to. The problem is, from a practical standpoint, generally speaking, the amount that Medicaid has paid far supersedes the amount that’s able to accumulate within the Medicaid trust. Because of this, generally the only beneficiary that’s going to receive all of this excess income once the Medicaid recipient passes away will be the state of Florida.
It’s very very important, though, that you come to speak to attorney and have an attorney draft this specific kind of trust. It is very specific and does have to pass through the legal department of the Department of Children and Family in order to be qualified for Medicaid coverage for skilled nursing care, as it must be approved and must have the provisions that Medicaid is looking for.
If you have questions regarding this specific kind of a trust and whether this is viable for you and your family, please give me a call here at Waller and Mitchell. Our phone number is area code (727)847-2288.