Peewee, I'm bumping this up in the hopes that you'll get a more complete answer than mine.
If your mother is in a NH and Medicaid is being asked to pay for it, there is generally a 5 year lookback, to see if any of her assets or income were "gifted", i.e., given to others. If her house was sold at fair market value and the monies that she got from that sale were used to her benefit ( care, housing, clothing, trps around the world, whatever) as long as it was for her, it's fine. However, if the house was sold for a dollar, or given to someone, whether or not it was family, then Medicaid will not pay.
Peewee - are you asking cause its looking like mom is going to need to apply for Medicaid and some of the proceeds from the sale of her home back in 2013 was "gifted" so that there is a high probability of transfer penalty surfacing when the financial paperwork is submitted & reviewed by Medicaid?
If so, I would suggest you gather house sale paperwork (include her old tax assessor statements) and all mom's financials and see an elder law atty on her behalf asap. If gifting happened, to me you kinda need to figure out just how big a penalty would be placed (this varies by state as its based on your states room & board reimbursement rate) and how to best deal with it and do this in advance of ever applying for Medicaid.
House sale proceeds easily found and to the penny. Local assessor & courthouse has details which the state's Medicaid caseworker can access in a couple of keystrokes.
The state doesn't "collect assets" but instead will place a penalty on her ability to have Medicaid pay for her care. Penalty is set by # of days on the amount transferred or "gifted". Penalty period starts the day of the Medicaid application (so when they started paying) and not the day $ was gifted. This part is sticky cause if mom goes into a NH "Medicaid pending" day 1 of admission and the penalty is found and placed at month 3 in her review, Medicaid will place her ineligible back to day 1 of Medicaid. NH gets the notice of ineligibility from the state too, and will seek for family to make up the 3 mo of $ either by paying all past due (could be at private pay rate) or signing a binding contract as to making payments and through the entire penalty period or mom gets a "30 Day Notice". That past due bill will still be looming out there one way or another to whomever signed off on admissions…….
Really if any of this sounds like what might be in store for you, please schedule an elder law appointment in advance of ever your elders applying for Medicaid so you can come up with a plan as to how to deal with this with less stress. Good luck.
If your mother is in a NH and Medicaid is being asked to pay for it, there is generally a 5 year lookback, to see if any of her assets or income were "gifted", i.e., given to others. If her house was sold at fair market value and the monies that she got from that sale were used to her benefit ( care, housing, clothing, trps around the world, whatever) as long as it was for her, it's fine. However, if the house was sold for a dollar, or given to someone, whether or not it was family, then Medicaid will not pay.
If so, I would suggest you gather house sale paperwork (include her old tax assessor statements) and all mom's financials and see an elder law atty on her behalf asap. If gifting happened, to me you kinda need to figure out just how big a penalty would be placed (this varies by state as its based on your states room & board reimbursement rate) and how to best deal with it and do this in advance of ever applying for Medicaid.
House sale proceeds easily found and to the penny. Local assessor & courthouse has details which the state's Medicaid caseworker can access in a couple of keystrokes.
The state doesn't "collect assets" but instead will place a penalty on her ability to have Medicaid pay for her care. Penalty is set by # of days on the amount transferred or "gifted". Penalty period starts the day of the Medicaid application (so when they started paying) and not the day $ was gifted. This part is sticky cause if mom goes into a NH "Medicaid pending" day 1 of admission and the penalty is found and placed at month 3 in her review, Medicaid will place her ineligible back to day 1 of Medicaid. NH gets the notice of ineligibility from the state too, and will seek for family to make up the 3 mo of $ either by paying all past due (could be at private pay rate) or signing a binding contract as to making payments and through the entire penalty period or mom gets a "30 Day Notice". That past due bill will still be looming out there one way or another to whomever signed off on admissions…….
Really if any of this sounds like what might be in store for you, please schedule an elder law appointment in advance of ever your elders applying for Medicaid so you can come up with a plan as to how to deal with this with less stress. Good luck.