Where to get legal help regarding protecting my condo from Medicaid recoupment?

Medicaid has a right to recoup funds paid for you, more than your son has a right to inherit a condo when taxpayer funds are helping to provide you with medical care.

Personally, I find attempts to shield assets from Medicaid, while expecting to rely on it to support you, as offensive.

Perhaps your son could help you?

If you don't have funds to pay an attorney for an irrevocable trust, you might want to consider other options. ITs are far too complex for someone who's not an attorney (or even a paralegal) to prepare for him/herself. And I doubt you could find someone to prepare one for free/

Your profile states that you're caring for someone with arthritis. Perhaps this person could pay you as a caregiver to help supplement your income.

Raina - im going to look at your situation from a different persective. At 63 you are still pretty young and could live another 10, 20, 30 years. Your living situation could change & you end up selling the condo within that time. Your son could move away for a job and have no interest in the condo; or he could move away and ask you to move to wherever he is years from now. NH Medicaid could dramatically change the rules for eligibility & its rules for having a home as an exempt asset for individuals. 2026 when you are 73 could find NH Medicaid be quite a different situation.

Also Medicaid recoup / recovery or MERP actually is not your problem to deal with but whomever is your heirs. Could be that they could themselves totally qualified for an exemption or exclusion to recovery, for example they are low income themselves so get the low income exemption. Or your Son ended up moving in with you 10 years from now and cared for you full time so he qualifys for the caregiver exemption to recovery. Or Sonny opens probate (as yiu dud a will,and named him executor) and the value of your "estate" is such that MERP is not cost-effective for the state to do.

Since you are already on Medicaid, doing anything to change your assets places you in the situation to have a total review of your eligibility to be in Medicaid. What would happen is exactly what Pam said "medicaid stops...."

Too late to protect any asset if you are already on Medicaid. Transferring the condo to a life trust would result in Medicaid stopping suddenly and completely.

Massachusetts has law advocates that deal with low income/poverty individuals. You can ask them for a consultation. http://www.masslegalservices.org/
Medicaid planning and trusts have to be done BEFORE you go onto Medicaid to be exempt from the lookback. If he moves in with you and is your caregiver under a strict set of guidelines to keep you out of nursing home and reduce the costs to the state of providing your care, he MIGHT apply for exemption. But you are responsible for paying for your care, not leaving inheritance for your son unless he qualifies for special needs exemption/disabled on his own or being your direct caregiver.