Our Fee

Our Fee

PalmettoMEC has a three-tiered fee schedule for our services based on an applicant's financial background, and actions that may be required by our consultants to help the applicant meet Medicaid's eligibility requirements. With our reasonable fees, we trust that all who need assistance with an application for long-term care Medicaid will be able to afford our services. Fees are usually paid from the applicant's assets. The following is an explanation of the type of cases that would be included in each tier, along with the fee for that tier:

Tier 1: $2,500.00:

Tier 1 cases include the applicant, and if the applicant is married, a spouse, whose liquid assets at the time of application are less than the current $9,243.32 average monthly private pay nursing home rate. These cases may require some minor spend-down to meet Medicaid's asset limit of $2,000.00 for an individual and $66,480.00 for a couple. Multiple documents must be gathered, verified, and organized.
The applicant’s gross income must be less than the current Medicaid income limit of $2,829.00 so that an Income Trust is not needed.

Tier 2: $4,500.00:

Tier 2 cases include an applicant and if the applicant is married, a spouse, whose assets at the time of application are more than the current $9,243.32 average monthly private pay nursing home rate. These cases require considerable resource management to reduce assets before the applicant meets Medicaid's asset limit of $2,000.00 for an individual and $66,480.00 for a couple. Action(s) to reduce assets may include application of the encumbrance policy, purchase of burial assets, or other means of spending-down assets so that the applicant meets the resource limit. Resource management under Tier 2, however, must not include any transfer(s) where a promissory note must be developed to remedy an expected penalty. If after the original consulting fee has been paid, it is determined that a transfer of assets has occurred, or that a promissory note is required to remedy an anticipated transfer penalty situation, an additional $400.00 will be due to the consultant.
Tier 2 cases also include applicants whose gross income exceeds the Medicaid income limit of $2,829.00, and an Income Trust agreement must be completed.

Tier 3: $4,900.00:

Tier 3 cases include the applicant and, if the applicant is married, his or her spouse who may or may not meet the resource limit currently; however, because the applicant transferred assets in the 5 years prior to the nursing home Medicaid application date, a promissory note must be developed to remedy an expected transfer penalty.
Other Tier 3 cases include all those requiring documents, such as annuities, special needs trusts, and pooled trusts, that must be referred to the SC Department of Health and Human Services’ Bureau of Eligibility Administration, (Division of Policy and Planning) for evaluation and approval.
These cases involve extensive interaction with, and assistance to the authorized representative to obtain essential information to process the applicant’s case. Additionally, these cases often require contacts with, and/or visits to financial institutions and other offices to obtain important documents.
In most circumstances, PalmettoMEC will be able to help a client who has a sanctionable transfer or excess assets to qualify, when a promissory note is developed.

Regardless of the tier under which an applicant’s case may be categorized, PalmettoMEC will partner with the applicant’s representative to gather all information needed to submit a thorough, comprehensive application to the SCDHHS for approval.

Most of PalmettoMEC's client's will not have made contact yet with the SCDHHS prior to contacting us for help. Some clients however, may already have an application in progress with the SCDHHS and come to us later for help to complete the application. No matter where they are in the process, we help them complete the SCDHHS form 3401, Application for Nursing Home, Residential or In-Home Care, and gather all essential documents. When the application is completed and information obtained, we add detailed notes to the file as needed; neatly organize the documents; and deliver the completed application to the SCDHHS office for eligibility processing.

Once the applicant's Medicaid has been approved, SCDHHS will require that the case be reviewed annually to ensure that the recipient still meets eligibility criteria. The SCDHHS usually mails out a blank or incomplete annual review form each year to the recipient to start the review process and this form is to be completed and returned along with requested verifications to the SCDHHS office. PalmettoMEC can help families with the SCDHHS annual reviews. The fee for this service, if the Consultant assisted with processing the original application, is $600.00. The Client has the option to (1) pay this amount in full at the time of our consulting agreement signing (likely after a brief phone conversation or interview), or (2) the Client may pay $300.00 due at time of our initial agreement signing and $300.00 due when the review is completed and ready to be delivered by the Consultant to the SCDHHS office.

Regardless of an applicant's or family's needs, we are confident that should our services be used, we could save an applicant thousands of dollars, based on known fees charged by other professionals for comparable services. If you find a lower fee somewhere else, PalmettoMEC will beat it.