How is a "Gift" Problem Fixed?

This is the Million Dollar question. Once a person has made a gift innocently or not, how is the problem fixed.

First, it is important to understand what the problem is. Medicaid penalties only begin to run when:

1. A person is in a nursing home or at home and applies for Medicaid benefits;
2. If that person is single, generally, his or her assets must below $2,000.00 and if the person is married her or she can have no greater then $2,000.00 and the spouse at home must be below his or her spousal resource limit.

The problem occurs when a person is in a nursing home, has only $2,000.00, and is penalized for Medicaid benefits. For instance: If I give my daughter $10,000.00 thinking its "ok" because my plumber told me so, when I apply for Medicaid, I will be penalized for $10,000/$239.41 or 41 days. I do not have the money to pay a nursing home for 41 days (in New Jersey I could need over $12,000.00 to pay for 41 days.

Where do I get the money?
What will happen if I do not get the money?

Solution 1 - My daughter can give me back all the money. When I write "all", I mean all. If my daughter, in the example above, gives me back $9,999.99 I am still penalized for 41 days. Only if she gives me back all the money will my penalty be erased.

This is fine if my daughter has the money to give me. But what if she does not have the money? What will happen?

Not necessarily in order, the nursing home will sue me and my daughter. They may follow the notice procedure required in the State of New Jersey and seek my discharge. Or the facility will be stuck with me, without payment, for a period of time.

Now in this example, my daughter may have the money to give to me, but what if I made charitable donations, paid caregivers illegally, or commingled my money with my daughter? The outcome is the same - unless every penny "given" away by me is returned to me, I will be penalized by Medicaid.

The next blog entry will address an additional solution.

Gift Pitfall #4 - Paying another person's expenses.

Gift pitfall #4 is very similar to commingling family funds, but not quite. Many people think if their parent pays their cable bill, telephone or other, small, monthly charge, the payment by the parent will not be considered a gift, or not noticed. This is not the case at all.

When a person applies for Medicaid, they must provide copies of their checks from 2/8/06 to the date of the application. If a person writes two checks to Verizon, for instance, in the same month, they are going to be asked why? If the answer is - "I have two phones," the person will be asked for copies of the bills.

Since the parent will not have a bill in his or her name (but the child's name), the payment will be considered a gift.

The same is true of any payment for a child.