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mrbilljr Asked January 2013

Is Medicaid lookback period prorata?

If ownership of a residence is transferred from husband and wife jointly to wife individually, and 4 years and 6 months later the husband has to go to a nursing home, will the whole value of the house subject to a Medicaid claim or only a prorata portion based on when the transfer was made?

igloo572 Jan 2013
Just out of curiosity, why the transfer? I'm pretty sure that if the wife is the community spouse and the husband goes into a NH, the wife gets to retain full ownership of the house without any subsequent MERP (estate recovery) claim or lien on the house (if she outlives him while still living @ the house); also as the community spouse the house has no assessed value limitation on the home; also as community spouse she is allowed about 109K in assets plus the always exempt assets of the house and a car and usually a monthly maintenance. Now if she sells the house and moves into a much smaller and cheaper house after hubby is in the NH, that can be an issue, as the proceeds from the house if divided equally can take him over the 2K asset limit for Medicaid.

About the transfer penalty, it varies by state as the penalty is based on each states NH reinbursement day rate. For asset transfers, when the transfer was done and what the state's reimbursement was on that date seems to be what the amount is based on and starts on the first day of the month of the transfer.

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