Assisted Living Services Aged and Disabled Medicaid Waiver Program
How do I get financial help to pay for assisted living?
Medicaid-eligible individuals, who require more intensive, nursing home levels of care, can get financial assistance in paying for assisted living services from the Waiver program.
Your services coordinator will help you find out whether you are eligible for the Waiver Program and what the financial impact will be to you.
To be eligible for support through this Waiver program, you must:
- Need care equivalent to residents in nursing facilities;
- Be eligible for Medicaid; and
- Work with your services coordinator to develop a service plan that's based on your personal goals and is cost-effective.
If you're not already receiving Medicaid, contact your local Nebraska Health and Human Services office to see if you're eligible.
Resident Rights
While in the Medicaid Waiver Assisted-Living program, you have the right to:
- Privacy;
- Be treated with dignity and respect;
- Know what services are available and the limits of those services;
- Direct your own personal care;
- Control how health-related services are delivered to you;
- Keep and use of your own possessions;
- Interact freely with others both within the community and within the facility;
- Practice the religion of your choice or abstain from religious practice;
- Manage your own personal funds; and
- Be free of abuse and neglect.
What is Medicaid Waiver Assisted Living?
A Medicaid Waiver-certified facility provides a combination of housing, personal and health-related services.
Services are designed to help you with your normal daily activities in ways that keep you as independent as possible.
Can someone help me make the right decisions?
When you begin to consider assisted living, Nebraska Health and Human Services will make sure you get help in making the right decisions by assigning you a services coordinator.
This services coordinator is your partner in planning services in your best interests. Your services coordinator will:
- Work with you to identify your needs and strengths. These determine what services an assisted-living facility will need to provide;
- Tell you about Medicaid Waiver-certified assisted living services and give you a choice of certified assisted-living facilities;
- Develop plans, with you, your family and the facility serving you, that describe the services provided, who will provide these services, and when.
- Coordinate and monitor the delivery of services; and
- Periodically assess your situation.
What kind of living space will I have?
While at an assisted-living facility, you'll have your own living area. This living area will include a bathroom with sink and toilet. Some facilities also include a private tub or shower.
If needed, your assisted-living facility will provide you with a bed, a dresser, table and chairs and linen for your bed and bath.
What about health services?
If you are in a Waiver-approved facility, you can expect to have supervision or assistance, depending on your needs, with the following activities:
- Physical needs, such as transferring, dressing, bathing, transferring from bed to chair or going to the bathroom; or
- Mental needs, such as memory problems, that require supervision to keep you or others from harm.
Assisted living facilities do not provide complex nursing care. Your health care will be supervised by the physician of your choice. If you suffer from a temporary illness, injury or need to recuperate from surgery, you have two choices:
- you may remain in the facility, or
- be readmitted from a hospital, if appropriate services can be provided by a Waiver-approved assisted-living facility of your choice.
What about meals and services?
You, your services coordinator, and the assisted-living facility staff will make specific plans that outline the services you'll receive.
These services will be based on what you're capable of and what you need. Generally, these will include:
- Three meals a day, plus snacks;
- Help with taking and remembering the right times for your medication;
- Social and religious activities;
- Exercise and recreational activities;
- Transportation;
- Laundry and linen service;
- Housekeeping and maintenance;
- Essential personal care items, such as shampoo, soap, dental hygiene products, tissue and toilet paper.
