Voorhees Township’s Trusted Medicaid & Long-Term Care Planning Lawyer

In fee-for-service Medicaid, the State pays each provider directly. In managed care, the State pays a health plan, and the plan coordinates and pays for the member’s care. New Jersey delivers long-term services and supports through Managed Long Term Services and Supports (MLTSS), which uses NJ FamilyCare managed care organizations to coordinate all services, including care management, home-delivered meals, respite, home modifications, assisted living, and nursing home care. According to the Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services, only nursing facility residents who were on custodial Medicaid before July 1, 2014 remain in fee-for-service. A new Voorhees applicant should expect to be enrolled in a managed care plan, so the plan’s network matters.

There are two tracks, and both must be satisfied. Financially, the county Board of Social Services reviews monthly income and total liquid assets; for 2026 the State lists a gross income cap of $2,982 a month for Medicaid in a nursing facility, and income above the cap generally has to be handled through a qualified income trust. Clinically, an adult must meet nursing facility level of care, which the State defines as needing hands-on help with three or more activities of daily living, such as bathing, dressing, toileting, transfers, or eating, or having cognitive deficits that require supervision and cueing with three or more of those activities. Adults start the clinical screening by contacting the county Area Agency on Aging, which is part of the Aging and Disability Resource Connection.

Key documents include durable powers of attorney, advance health care directives, and trust documents. These tools safeguard your wishes if you’re unable to make decisions yourself, and a durable power of attorney that clearly authorizes Medicaid planning and applications spares a family from seeking guardianship later.

Not automatically, but the home is not ignored either. Under federal law, 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(f), an applicant whose home equity exceeds the State’s limit generally cannot qualify for long-term care Medicaid. New Jersey’s home equity limit for 2026 is $1,130,000, and the limit does not apply when a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child lawfully lives in the home. After death, the same statute requires the State to seek recovery from the estate of a person who was 55 or older when they received nursing facility or home and community-based services, subject to limits such as a surviving spouse still living. The statute also exempts transfers of the home to a spouse, to a child under 21 or a blind or disabled child, to a sibling with an equity interest who lived there at least a year, or to a son or daughter who lived in the home for at least two years and provided care that kept the parent at home. Which of these apply depends on the deed and who lives in the house, so we review both before anyone assumes the house is protected.

Federal law sets the look-back at 60 months for transfers made on or after February 8, 2006 (42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(1)(B)), so gifts made more than five years before an application are generally outside the review. Starting five or more years ahead leaves the most options open. It is not too late if care is already needed. A crisis plan works with what is there, documents past gifts honestly, and calculates any penalty period using New Jersey’s penalty divisor, which the State set at $420.67 a day effective April 1, 2026. The State says the penalty clock begins only when the applicant is otherwise eligible, which is why uncounted gifts are often discovered after the savings are already gone.

According to New Jersey’s Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services, for 2026 the spouse who stays at home keeps the greater of $32,532 or one-half of the couple’s combined countable resources, but not more than $162,660. That spouse may also receive part of the institutionalized spouse’s income: effective July 1, 2026, the base monthly maintenance allowance is $2,705, which can rise when shelter costs exceed $811.50 a month. The actual figures depend on the couple’s accounts and income on the date care begins.

Yes. MLTSS members are enrolled in an NJ FamilyCare managed care organization, and members can ask NJ FamilyCare to switch plans. The change should be timed so the new plan’s network includes the nursing home or home-care agency already providing care, and so care management does not lapse. We help families confirm participation before a switch and keep the paperwork in order through the transition.

A Medicaid lawyer, sometimes called a Medicaid planning attorney, helps an applicant and family qualify for long-term care Medicaid without avoidable delay. For a Voorhees household that usually means reviewing five years of bank and brokerage statements for transfers, identifying which assets are countable, working out the community spouse’s share and income allowance when one spouse stays home, preparing or reviewing the application filed with the Camden County Board of Social Services, and coordinating the clinical screening through the county’s Aging and Disability Resource Connection. It can also mean setting up a qualified income trust when income exceeds the monthly cap, or requesting a fair hearing after a denial. No attorney can promise that an application will be approved; the value is in filing it correctly and on time.

Yes. Cherry Hill, Haddonfield, Gloucester Township, Pennsauken, and the rest of Camden County use the same Camden County Board of Social Services for the financial application and the same county Aging and Disability Resource Connection for the clinical screening, so the process we describe for Voorhees Township applies across the county. Many Cherry Hill families also come to us for estate administration after a parent who received Medicaid has died, when estate recovery and New Jersey inheritance tax questions arrive together.

Yes. William Ravenell is licensed in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and the New Jersey Medicaid rules on this page, including the look-back, the income cap, the community spouse figures, and the penalty divisor, apply statewide, from Camden County to Monmouth County towns like Brielle. What changes from county to county is the agency: each county’s board of social services handles the financial application and its Aging and Disability Resource Connection handles the clinical screening. Our office is in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, and we work with New Jersey families across the state. We do not practice in states other than New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

We offer a personalized, compassionate approach backed by a practice focused on elder law, Medicaid, and estate planning. We listen first, then build a solution around your unique needs.