If all the proceeds are properly documented, put into his bank account and spent only for his care, there would be no penalty from Medicaid. This is the proper way to spend down his assets. Keep good records.
The proceeds from the sale needs to be spent on mom in some way. Realize that MedicAID can do a 5 year look back on the applicants finances. This look back can be in great detail too. For my mom, it was 3 years & 6 months of banking & financial documentation AND a full 5 years on real property documentation.
Real property is land, homes, cars. Keep in mind that the sale or transfer on them is recorded at the local level by your county or city tax assessor & then they in turn dovetail that info to the state system. So the sale of the home will eventually surface. What you want to be able to do is to show a "pattern of spending" that makes sense for what happened with the proceeds of the sale that can be justified to have been spent for mom's care or mom's needs. Otherwise you can face a Medicaid transfer penalty which can be totally sticky to deal with and often is a panic situation for family as the penalty comes AFTER mom is in the NH.
Personally, I second assandache7 in getting a elder law attorney to go over mom's options and also update all her legal before placing the home on the market.
Real property is land, homes, cars. Keep in mind that the sale or transfer on them is recorded at the local level by your county or city tax assessor & then they in turn dovetail that info to the state system. So the sale of the home will eventually surface. What you want to be able to do is to show a "pattern of spending" that makes sense for what happened with the proceeds of the sale that can be justified to have been spent for mom's care or mom's needs. Otherwise you can face a Medicaid transfer penalty which can be totally sticky to deal with and often is a panic situation for family as the penalty comes AFTER mom is in the NH.
Personally, I second assandache7 in getting a elder law attorney to go over mom's options and also update all her legal before placing the home on the market.