I am my dad’s P.O.A. My 3 sisters keep telling me to not listen to the Medicaid case worker and to just do what they want me to do with our mom’s property, money, etc. Help! I am more than willing to give Medicaid any and all information that they ask for, but the tensions are running high amongst family.
Mom assets are Dads assets & vice versa. And for most states, she as a community spouse is allowed to have abt 119k in nonexempt assets & dad 2k in non exempt assets. (A home & a car are exempt assets if value under Medicaid limits). If combined their over basically 120k in non-exempt then it’s Hello Spend Down! or they place the excess in a medicaid compliAnt SNT or SPIA. These aren’t DIY but they need a experienced elder law atty.
Personally to me, if they are like a lot of elders, they have like 50k in the bank and a old house maybe 200k and old car, then mom’s ok for nonexempt assets & realistically there not enough $$ to do anything creative like a SPIA.
BUT what you as dpoa want to pay attention to is the income rules. For Medicaid mom’s income is hers & dads is his. And this comes into play & is mucho importante as Medicaid requires the LTC resident to do a copay or SOC (share of cost) of all their monthly income (like his SS), less a small (avg $50 mo) personal needs allowance, to the NH. If mom could need to get from dads monthly income $$ for her to live as a CS - a community spouse- mom may need to show why she needs his $ diverted to her. It’s called CSRA or MMNA... community spouse resource allowance/ monthly maintenance needs assessment. Think of it kinda like alimony for the nonNH spouse (mom).
Yeah it can be confusing. And confusing atop dealing with mom’s situation and dads gettIng adjusted at the NH. Not even factoring in those Sisters carping abt $$$....
Doing anything now to transfer any of their assets / income at this point in time or in the future will trigger a transfer penalty inquiry by Medicaid. Medicaid seems to have an annual renewal process so income/ assets will need to be verified annually.
One of the experts on this site, Gabriel Heiser has a great readable book on an overview of the whole Medicaid process: “Medicaid Secrets”, it’s on Amazon but most public libraries have it as well. If Primed today you’ll have it next week to read and show the Sisters why moving $$$ now is Problematic.
I think I can understand what your sisters are doing, but that would constitute hiding assets from Medicaid. Well, nothing can be hidden from Medicaid, they have a 5-year look back and they WILL find everything that your Mom owns. Now if these assets are in joint name with your Dad, Medicaid will take that into consideration so not to leave your Dad without any assets or money.
You are right, give Medicaid all of the information. Ignore what your siblings are saying.
It sounds like right now cooperating with Medicaid is in your father's best interest. Stay strong, and do the right thing!