Should I pay back my Mother's cash gift of $1500 to me before applying her for Medicaid?

This is a catch 22. If you do no return the funds, they may be considered a "gift" and your mom may be bitten by the 5-year lookback. If you do return them, your mom's assets will increase over the $2000 allowed by medicaid and she will be ineligible until she spends it down. I would consult an elder law attorney. He can tell you when and in what manner to return the gift so that medicaid is in the loop. You probably should do nothing until speaking with him/her. I know that when you are doing a "spend down" for medicaid purposes, there is a list of acceptable expenditures, including house repairs/upgrades to a home you are returning to. I would start by googling those. Good luck.

If the gift was only a few years ago, I believe it would be considered in Medicaid's evaluation. If you still have the funds, I would return them, so that they don't interfere with your mother's ability to get Medicaid funds as soon as she needs them, which apparently is going to be fairly soon.

The look back period in Ohio is 5 years. You will have to go through your records to see when exactly, the gift was made. The gift, then results in a period of time when your Mom is ineligible for medicaid. Others on this site have more experience than I with medicaid. come back with that info along with an approximation of when you think your Mom will need Medicaid and I suspect you will get some very good information