Medicaid Help - About The Financial Aid Center for Long Term Care

What or Who is
The Financial Aid Center
for Long Term Care?

What is the Financial Aid Center?
The Financial Aid Center for Long Term Care, a private firm located in Grants Pass, Oregon, specializes in assisting seniors in qualifying for Medicaid while preserving assets. We work directly with clients and their families, the majority of which come to us by way of referrals from social workers, hospital discharge planners, attorneys, support groups, former clients, etc. Our objective has always been to qualify the patient for Medicaid at the earliest possible time, while, at the same time, protecting the largest amount of assets possible under the rules.

Who are Joe Mitchell and Terall Blalock?

Having spent over 15 years each in the financial services profession, we have acquired a great deal of experience working with and specializing in senior issues. Helping seniors to safeguard their assets, reduce taxes and improve their investment return was very rewarding. However, when it came to issues of long-term care and Medicaid qualification, we, like many in our profession, were constantly frustrated. Having to sit back and watch a client's life savings destroyed at a time when they needed help the most was absolutely heartbreaking. It seemed as if there ought to be some action that could be taken to protect assets, while getting a patient qualified for Medicaid...but we didn't have a clue.

And what was worse, no one we talked to had any answers either, including the lawyers. We finally came to the conclusion that if anybody was going to come up with the answers it was going to have to be us.

It wasn't easy, but after years of studying the administrative rules and policies governing the Medicaid program, and consulting with key policy personnel within the system, we were able to develop and verify specific strategies that proved very effective in the protection of assets. In fact, for over ten years, our practice has been dedicated almost exclusively to the issues of Medicaid asset protection. We have developed the reputation as the "go to" people when it comes to Medicaid, particularly when families find themselves in an "at need" situation. Over the years we have been personally involved in hundreds of individual cases, and have never had a situation in which a client who followed our recommendations failed to qualify for Medicaid.

How did the Medicaid Asset Protection Plan (MAPP) Video come about?
After years of helping families with Medicaid issues, we had attained a nation-wide reputation. As a result, we often received phone calls from across the country, asking for help. Eventually, we came to realize that the questions we were fielding were essentially the same ones, over and over again. At some point it dawned on us that by producing a video we could share our knowledge of Medicaid financial qualification that had taken us years of experience to acquire. One of the first requirements we placed on ourselves was that the video not only contain the information and knowledge our families needed, but was presented in such a way as to allow them to immediately apply that knowledge to their particular situation. And secondly, that the video would not only be complete and technically correct, but that it would also be easy to watch and understand. Virtually everyone has had the experience of listening to a speaker who was obviously an expert in his field, but who spoke in such a way as to have everything go right over the listener's head. In talking to our customers, we almost always hear something like: "great video," "easy to understand" or "it was like the light came on."

When it comes to Medicaid planning, our experience has convinced us (over and over again) that most families fall into one of two categories. Either they move ahead, taking action based on misinformation and incorrect assumptions, perhaps causing irreversible harm, or, not entirely sure of their facts, they become frozen, unable to take any action. In either case, the result can easily be the loss of tens, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. But that is what the MAPP video is all about. It provides you with the facts, thus empowering you to move forward and take the actions necessary to protect family assets. Through our video, we are able to share with families across the country our knowledge and experience in such a way as to allow individuals to accomplish for themselves exactly what we have been doing for our clients for years.

The Real Issue:
When it comes to long-term care, it is not whether you are going to end up on Medicaid, it is how broke are you going to be when you get there. What we have put together in this multi-media package is the answer to the question: How can long-term care patients qualify for Medicaid, while still preserving assets for their family? The MAPP Video is the answer.