I think one of the biggest sources of trepidation that people have in seeing a lawyer is the perception that attorneys are expensive.  When a family member requires long-term care, such as care in a nursing home, many people forgo necessary legal advice because they believe obtaining advice from a lawyer will cost them a great deal of money, despite the fact that they are paying the nursing home $10,000 a month, or more.

For most of the services I provide, I charge a flat fee.  The client is informed of the charge before any work is performed and the price never goes up.  For instance, if a client retains my services to assist them with obtaining Medicaid eligibility, I will quote the client a flat fee and that is the fee I charge.

In the past two years, I have seen a number of new companies open that assist individuals with the Medicaid application process.  These companies are not law firms and cannot provide legal advice.  These companies advertise themselves as “Medicaid experts.”  They typically charge about $5,000 to assist an individual with applying for Medicaid, which is about the same fee that I charge my clients (slightly higher than my fee, actually).

Nursing homes often refer family members to these companies.  In fact, I have had a number of people come to my office and tell me that the staff at the nursing home told them that they had to use one of these firms and that the family could not use the services of an attorney.

When one company—the nursing home—insists that an individual use another company—the Medicaid advisor—it concerns me. Why would a nursing home insist that a resident use a specific company to apply for Medicaid?

I think nursing homes perform a difficult job, and for the most part, I think the staff at nursing homes perform their jobs well. It is difficult taking care of older and disabled people who have a tremendous amount of cognitive issues and physical needs.  These individuals deserve to be treated well and with dignity, but from a practical standpoint, it is a very hard job that most nursing homes perform well.

With that said, nursing homes aren’t charities. They are in business to make money, and there is nothing wrong with that concept.  Nursing homes should be paid for their services, and their staff probably deserve more money than most of them are paid.

But when a nursing home appears eager for a resident to use another business’s services, I think you should always ask yourself what is in this referral for the nursing home, because the nursing home is a business, and like all businesses, it is in business to make money.

Medicaid is a very complex law. I have been working with the Medicaid program for 16 years.  I have written a book on elder law.  I have presented numerous seminars to attorneys.  Yet, I can tell you that there are many things about the Medicaid program of which I am unaware.

I have seen retainer agreements from non-attorney Medicaid advisor companies. I have heard the advice that they have provided to “clients.”  In my opinion, what these firms say is, if you pay us $5,000, we will apply for Medicaid for you; we do not promise that you will qualify for Medicaid and we do not know if you will qualify for Medicaid.

I have seen instances where these firms have failed to inform a client of a common Medicaid planning technique that would have saved the family tens of thousands of dollars. In fact, I believe that what many of these firms fail to tell the family is worse than the advice they give the family, which is often flawed.

Ironically, the family is paying these non-attorney Medicaid advisors more money than they would pay for my services. Here’s the truth—I am in business, I like making money.  But I also like saving people as much money as I can save them.  That is why I have won a Super Lawyer Award in Elder Law for six consecutive years and why I won a Five Star Wealth Manager Award twice.

When people come to me, they are my client, no one else, and my loyalty lies only with them, not the person who referred them to me. I like referrals, but I put out my own ads (such as this article) because I don’t want to be beholden to any person other than my client.