A Parkland family calls, usually a daughter, usually within a week of a hospital stay that did not end the way anyone expected. Her father is not coming home. The facility needs a decision. And nobody has told her what any of it will cost.
Here is what it costs — and what can still be protected.
$98,820 a year
Missouri’s official figure for private-pay nursing home care is $8,235 a month. Over a year, that is $98,820. It does not pause, and it does not care how carefully a family saved.
Most families in St. Francois County are not wealthy. They have a house, a retirement account, maybe some land, and a strong sense that what they built should go to their children. That combination — enough to disqualify, not enough to outlast — is exactly who this work is for.
Admission is not the end of the road
Families routinely assume that once a parent has moved into a facility, the only remaining option is to spend everything and wait for Medicaid to take over.
That is not what Missouri law provides. Crisis planning is designed for families whose loved one is already in a nursing home. It is the majority of what we do, and depending on the circumstances, a significant portion of what remains can often be protected — frequently including the home.
The one thing no attorney can recover is money already paid to the facility while the family waited. Each month of delay is permanent.
When a spouse remains at home
Married couples are far better protected than they realize. Missouri performs a Division of Assets: the spouse at home may keep up to $162,660 in countable assets, rather than the $6,220.50 that applies to a single person, along with a guaranteed monthly income floor of $2,705 drawn from the institutionalized spouse’s income.
See the current Missouri Medicaid figures →
The five-year look-back
Before transferring anything — a house, a bank account, a piece of ground — understand how Missouri treats it. The state looks back five years, divides whatever was given away by $8,235, and imposes that many months of ineligibility. The penalty starts when the applicant would otherwise have qualified, which is precisely when the family can least afford it.
Adding a child’s name to a deed or an account counts. So does selling something to a relative below market value. If any of this has already happened, it should be reviewed sooner rather than later.
Working with families from Farmington
Our office is in Cape Girardeau, about an hour southeast of Farmington. St. Francois County families are a regular part of our practice, and the logistics are more manageable than most people assume — a first conversation happens by phone, and we arrange the work so families are not driving back and forth during an already difficult month.
St. Francois County probate matters are handled through the county’s circuit court in Farmington.
What we handle — and what we do not
We do one thing deeply: protecting what Missouri families have spent a lifetime building. Medicaid crisis planning, asset-protection trusts, wills and trusts, and probate. It is why other attorneys send us their hardest Medicaid cases.
We do not handle divorce or family law, criminal defense, traffic, or personal injury. For those matters, the Missouri Bar’s Find-a-Lawyer directory is the fastest way to the right attorney.
Find out where your family stands
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Or call us directly: (573) 334-5125
This page is general information about Missouri Medicaid and nursing home planning, not legal advice, and reading it does not make you a client of the Law Office of Mark McMullin. Every family’s circumstances differ, and the rules change several times a year. Please speak with an elder law attorney before making decisions about your assets.