Can Medicaid or Medicare take my mom's house?

my dad had my step mother on medicade now they want his estate. What should we do.
Donnie

I am caring for my elderly mother who owns a home and we want to keep it to help pay for incidentals and she would like to give the home to me for caring for her all these years. Now she needs to go into care full time care home. How do we keep the home without having medical take it away?

How do I look up the answer to the question I just asked it says my answer has been posted however I have no idea where to look for that can you help me?

Shen- There is no one quick fix to dealing with this issue. If your mom needs to go into a NH and still owns her home you have to think about a # of issues. My mom is in a NH and still owns her empty home, here's what I've found are the issues especially with dealing w/Medicaid Estate Recovery. This will be kinda long.....

1. Transfer home ownership & hope that they don’t need Medicaid till 2018 & beyond 5 yr lookback.

2. Do living trust - all assets placed in a trust. The title on the house deed & all other assets would change to reflect trustee ownership. You would be the successor or grantor in the trust. It must be done by an attorney and it needs to be maintained too. Then upon death LT doesn’t go to probate. Probate is how most states enforce MERP lien or claim. So in theory, Living Trust = No MERP. Some states will impose a penalty on LT’s.IMHO you need to have real $$$$$ for LT as it must be maintained. But LT can’t be contested, it’s all private unlike a will & probate.Some states do not view a trust as valid for Medicaid exemption.

3. Transfer the home to your name (zero or below value) & pay a penalty based on when they apply for Medicaid against the transfer period and value of home. There is a formula on how each state calculates this based on each state’s NH Medicaid reimbursement. They move in NH, you pay the penalty & then they are on Medicaid. If you do this, you really should get real appraisal(s) done on property if it should be less than what the tax assessor claims it to be. No MERP. Transfer penalty for Texas is about $ 140 a day.

4. House sold to you for whatever is appraisal or assessors rate if it is lower. Elder gets the $$ &: she can go into a NH & private pay from the sale $$; OR since you own house, she continues to live there, pays for her needs & pays you a personal services contract monthly for her care base on rates in your area. Elder care attorney really has to do this as they are sticky. If you have the $ to buy the house, want the house & can be a full-time caregiver, this can make sense. No MERP.

5. You don’t do any of the above, they have a homestead in their name but now need to move into NH. Home does not have to be sold to qualify for Medicaid (home is “non-countable” asset) but under $ 500K in value (some states 750K). They do need to “want to be able to return home if they get better”. What matters is being under state’s Medicaid ceiling for all other assets & income. The Medicaid application that states that any assets are subject to MERP after death or they leave the NH. They get on Medicaid which pays for the NH & MERP can be done on their estate after death.

Some states are aggressive with MERP and others not. This really depends on your states law and whether MERP is a claim or a lien. For example in Texas, MERP is a Class 7 claim - so there are 6 other classes that get paid first in probate. Because of that MERP is low in Texas but still happens. You really should get good elder care legal advice to see what works in your state.