Can my sister be commiting Medicaid fraud?

I'm not sure if this is Medicaid fraud or not. Was the money from the assets applied to your mother's care? Did your sister have POA or permission from your mother? Was there a house that had any equity? We need to know a lot more to answer this question. What is your mother's health problem and why might your sister want her living close to her? There are two possibilities I see: 1) Your sister is really mean and potentially abused her POA, or 2) this is what needed to be done. Since your mother is in Medicaid housing, I suspect there were not many resources and not much money even after things were sold. Tell us a bit more about the situation and someone may have some better advice on what to do.

What in the world is Medicaid housing? I've never heard anything named that before? Doesn't sound like fraud to me.

No such thing as Medicaid housing. Get the facts before you accuse.

Who is telling you that mom lives in " Medicaid housing" do you mean a nursing home? Low cost senior housing? Is your sister POA? Does your mom have dementia.?

Mamitch, there may be things that happened in the hospital that your grandmother doesn't remember. That happens sometimes in hospitals. I don't know what happened, but I know you have to keep an open mind to both sides when it comes to elder care. Chances are that there was just a misunderstanding. I hope it is the case and that your aunt was not being malicious. Who knows? Maybe the new place will be even better than the old. I hope so. But I do sympathize with you. Your aunt should have let you and your mother know what was going on with something this major. And unless she has POA, she has no right to touch your grandmother's money or to sign a lease at a new place for her. It is hard to know what to think. I know how you feel in this situation, since there was no communication.

Mamitch, who DOES have PoA? That person should be alerted to what is going on.

Where does Medicaid come into this?

I can certainly understand your Aunt wanting to have your Grandmother someplace close as she becomes more frail. It becomes a real burden on family members to coordinate hospital care from afar. My mom used to live in IL close to her old home. When she had a stroke and it was determined that she needed NH care, we decided to move her very close to where one brother lives. It really is necessary at some point to do this, or to pay for a geriatric care manager.

Have you tried talking to your Aunt about what's going on? Has your grandmother been diagnosed with, say, mild cognitive impairment or early dementia?

PS, your Aunt can't just" put "your Grandma on Medicaid. If Aunt misappropriated Grandma's assets, Medicaid will know about it. I strongly suspect that your Aunt has a very different version of this story. In the interest of peace in your family, give your Aunt the benefit of the doubt and hear her out.

Consider the fact that Grandma's IL apartment was costing money. Is it possible that's where the money she had was spent? Was she handling her own finances before her fall?

To me, the key thing is that neither you nor your mother seem to have a clear picture of what your grandmother's real financial situation is. And, quite possibly, until this life-altering fall happened, your aunt hadn't either.

It is possible - isn't it? - that your aunt was doing the best she could in difficult circumstances. Let's suppose that your grandmother had been living happily in her retirement community, liked it there, didn't want to think about having to move from it and therefore paid scant attention to how she was going to continue to fund it. She then had this nasty fall, your aunt arrives on the scene - to be fair, nobody else volunteered did they? - and finds herself with a right can of worms on her hands.

Obviously, I'm just hypothesising. But this does seem to be a case of "if you think you can do better, go to it." And certainly don't assume the worst about someone unless you have good reason to do so.

Is your aunt really the sort of person who would steal money that your grandmother had set aside for your wedding? Would you accuse her of that to her face? Because that is kind of what you're implying, and as allegations go it's a biggee.

I think you need to call your Aunt today and have a grownup to grownup conversation about Grandma. You really want to hear this story from Aunt's point of view. Please don't accuse her ofc anything until you hear this from her side. Is it possible that the doctors in the hospital advised that Grandma was no longer able to live without assistance? Is the place she's going a rehab place? Possibly paid for by Medicare, not Medicaid? There are SO many possibilities that explain this situation in a light that aunt did exactly the right thing. Please give her the benefit of the doubt.