We used moms funds to put an addition on our home for mom. She went down faster than expected. Will they lien my husband and I?

Medicaid is an "at-need" program in which the applicant needs to be at a certain level of income (this varies by state and about 2K) and assets (this too about 2K). Now to establish that their assets have be used for themselves, their property of their care, the state can do up to a 5 year look back on all their assets.

So they will have to provide for up to 5 years of bank statements, property ownership or transfer or sale details, insurance policies and anything else that can have a cashed out value with their Medicaid application. (My mom's application was slightly over 100 pages and required an 3 year & 6 month documentation on all her financials.)

What can happen in the review is that the checks or transfers to you, will show up. When that happens the state can do a transfer inquiry in which you have to provide the details on the $ and why. Gifting is not allowed and probably the $ she gave to you will be viewed as gifting unless there was some sort of personal care contract or her ownership in the property existed. The state can do a transfer penalty on the Medicaid applicant. The penalty is based on your state's Medicaid reinbursement rate to the NH. Like in TX it's about $ 145.00 a day (which is low). So a 50K gifting would mean that for 345 days the state would not pay for mom's NH stay on Medicaid. Momma because she is now impoverished is on the Medicaid program but she is ineligible for payment by Medicaid till the penalty is worked through. If she is in a NH, they too get the penalty letter and expect for family or whomever signed her into the NH as financially responsible to private pay the amount due or she will be given a 30 day notice. Most NH admission are "Medicaid pending" and state that if Medicaid declines the application that they (the NH) can seek payment from any relative, spouse of the resident. Whether or not they can get it from you is whole other issue..... Most of the time, family moves the parent back into a family members home till the penalty period is over.

There won't be a lien on the property that's yours per se. But if the amount is large and the NH views you as responsible for the debt, their legal can come after you and your assets to recover payment on the debt. Just like any other creditor.

Transfer penalties are totally sticky and really unless you are very OCD and comfortable with legalese, you need to have an elder law attorney handle this in my humble opinion. If you haven't yet applied for NH Medicaid, I'd get an elder law guy to work with you from the beginning of all this. Good luck and keep a sense of humor in all this.

The best way to handle something like this would be for the parent to pay for the addition out of their own funds, in exchange for a legal interest in the house. This would be accomplished by creating a new deed that transfers some percentage interest in the house from you to your mother. Was this done? If not, then her payment to you could be considered a penalty-causing gift if she has to apply for Medicaid within five years of the transfer of funds.

As for the lien, some states use liens to protect their interest and some do not. Also, a lien can only be placed on your mother's legal interest in the house, so if you never did that deed I mentioned, then no lien can be placed on your house. Finally, some states have now ruled that a lien expires upon the death of a joint property owner, so once again, the rule varies with the state you are in. Ultimately you will want to consult with an expert in elder law and Medicaid planning in your state to sort all this out.

Does anyone know if they count the Aide and Attendance checks as income when applying for Medicaid, because the A&A is actually reimbursement and not taxable from what I have heard. TY

Your question doesn't quite make sense, but if you think because you spent your mother's money on her care, on your house, WHO is going to put a lien against you? Your mother's money was hers. If it was spent prior to her needing to go to a nursing home, then you start from that point. What happened in the past is in the past. You were not responsible for her sudden decline, nor could you have prevented it. You built the addition in "good faith" and it would be very difficult to prove otherwise. Perhaps if you shared who is telling you a lien will be placed against your property and why, because you are not giving us the complete story.

I didn't think NH could come after relatives of the patient as the relatives are not responsible for the debt, the patient is. (except in certain states where filial responsibility applies) I also heard that it is in fact illegal for the NH to try to force a relative to sign a paper stating that they would be responsible for the patient's NH bill. Correct me if I'm wrong?

That is correct that a relative may not be forced to accept personal liability for the nursing home bill at time of admission. This is a federal law.