Jackson families tend to have been here a while. The house has been paid off for years, there may be ground that came down through the family, and the plan — such as it is — was always that it would pass to the kids.
Then someone needs skilled nursing, and a bill arrives that can undo forty years of saving in about two.
The arithmetic nobody explains at admission
Missouri’s official figure for private-pay nursing home care is $8,235 a month, or $98,820 a year. It does not pause and it does not care how carefully a family planned.
That number is why families who consider themselves comfortable — not rich, but comfortable — end up watching the house go on the market.
Admission does not close the door
The most expensive thing anyone will tell a Jackson family this year is that it is too late because Mom is already in the facility.
Medicaid crisis planning is built for exactly that situation, and it is the majority of our practice. Depending on the facts, a meaningful share of what is left can often be protected — frequently including the home, and sometimes ground.
What cannot be recovered is the money that already went to the facility while the family waited to ask. Roughly $274 a day, every day.
Why “too late” is usually wrong →
If one spouse is still at home
Missouri performs a Division of Assets for married couples. The spouse at home may keep up to $162,660 in countable assets — not the $6,220.50 that applies to a single applicant — along with a guaranteed monthly income floor of $2,705.
Most spouses have never been told either figure. Some have already started selling things they did not need to sell.
See the current Missouri Medicaid figures →
“We already deeded it to the kids”
We hear this constantly in Cape Girardeau County, and it is the most common way a family creates a problem while trying to prevent one.
Missouri looks back five years. Whatever was given away gets divided by $8,235, and that is how many months of Medicaid ineligibility follows — starting when the family would otherwise have qualified, by which point the money is spent and the property is no longer theirs to sell.
It also puts the house or the ground within reach of a child’s divorce, creditors, or bankruptcy, and usually forfeits a substantial tax advantage.
If this has already happened in your family, it is worth a conversation before anyone files an application.
The four ways this backfires →
Working with Jackson families
Our office is in Cape Girardeau, about fifteen minutes from Jackson, and Jackson families are among the largest parts of our practice.
Families we help here most often have a loved one at Jackson Manor or at Hubble Creek — the facility many families still know by its former name, Monticello.
Jackson is the seat of Cape Girardeau County, so probate matters for this county are handled at the courthouse right in town.
One thing worth saying plainly: we are not affiliated with any nursing facility. We represent families, not facilities. Our only obligation is to the family sitting across the table.
When Medicare stops
Most families meet this problem right after a hospital stay, when someone mentions rehab and “up to 100 days.” Medicare covers days 1 through 20 in full, charges $217 a day for days 21 through 100 in 2026, and pays nothing after that — and most people never get near 100 days.
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.
We do not handle divorce or family law, criminal defense, traffic, or personal injury. For those, the Missouri Bar’s Find-a-Lawyer directory will get you to the right attorney faster than we could.
Find out where your family stands
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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.