Scott County is one of the places we work most. A good share of our crisis planning cases involve families with a loved one at Chaffee Nursing Center, and a good many more come from Sikeston, Scott City, Benton, and Oran.
If your family is somewhere in that stretch and someone has just entered a facility — or is about to — here is what actually matters.
The number that drives everything
Missouri’s official figure for private-pay nursing home care is $8,235 a month, which is $98,820 a year. It does not slow down, and it does not care how carefully a family saved.
The families hurt worst by that number are not wealthy ones. They are the households with a paid-off house, a little ground, and a savings account built one paycheck at a time — enough to disqualify them from help, not nearly enough to outlast the cost.
It is not too late after admission
This is the belief that costs Scott County families the most money: that once Mom is in the facility, the only thing left to do is spend down and wait.
That is not the law. Medicaid crisis planning is built for families whose loved one is already admitted, and it is the majority of our practice. Depending on the circumstances, a substantial share of what is left can often be protected — in many cases including the home.
What no one can recover is the money that already went to the facility while the family waited. That is the only real deadline here, and it runs at about $274 a day.
More on why “too late” is usually wrong →
If there is a spouse still at home
Married couples have far more protection than nearly anyone realizes. Missouri performs a Division of Assets, and the spouse who stays home may keep up to $162,660 in countable assets — not the $6,220.50 that applies to a single person — plus a guaranteed monthly income floor of $2,705, funded by redirecting income from the spouse in the facility.
We have sat across from spouses in this county who had already made peace with losing everything, and who had never been told either of those numbers existed.
See all the current Missouri Medicaid figures →
Before anyone deeds anything to the kids
Missouri looks back five years at gifts and transfers. Whatever was given away is divided by $8,235, and that is how many months the applicant goes without Medicaid coverage — a penalty that begins when they would otherwise have qualified, which is exactly when the family has nothing left to pay with.
Deeding the house or the ground to a child is the most common version of this. It also exposes the property to that child’s divorce, creditors, and lawsuits, and usually costs the family a significant tax advantage.
Why putting the house in the kids’ names backfires →
Working with Scott County families
Our office is in Cape Girardeau — about twenty minutes from Chaffee and Scott City, and roughly forty from Sikeston. Scott County families are a regular part of our practice.
Families we help in this county most often have a loved one at Chaffee Nursing Center in Chaffee, or at Clearview Nursing Center or Sikeston Convalescent Center in Sikeston, among other facilities across the county.
Scott County probate matters are handled through the county’s circuit court in Benton.
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.
Most of a first conversation happens by phone. Families in the middle of a nursing home admission rarely have a free afternoon.
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, the Missouri Bar’s Find-a-Lawyer directory is the fastest route to the right attorney.
Find out where your family stands
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Or call us: (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.