NJ Veteran's Facility Gift Penalties

Most of my clients are surprised when I tell them that the State of New Jersey operates 3 Veteran's nursing facilities. The cost is subsidized by the State and is about half the cost of a "private" nursing facility. The VA facilities are in Vineland, Menlo Park and Paramus. There are two levels of payment at the NJ VA homes based on the Veteran's assets.

The VA homes do not follow the Medicaid gift penalties. There is an entirely different set of penalties.

In New Jersey, when a person applies to a VA home, their assets are examined for the prior three years (Medicaid as we know has a five year look back period). If a person made gifts within the three year look back, they are treated as still owning the funds given away. Now, the treatment of gifts is important because if a Veteran is below the asset maximums, the Veteran only pays about 80% of his or her fixed income (pension and Social Security) for care. If a person is over the asset maximums, they pay an amount based on a variety of factors; however, the cost will be over $5,000.00 a month.

Here is an Example:

Mr. Jones has $80,000.00 and his house. Within 3 years of applying for VA nursing home benefits, he gave away $60,000. When Mr. Jones applies for the VA nursing facility; he will be told that he has to pay the highest rate, in this example $5,000.00 a month, until the $60,000.00 he gave away has been used.

So, unlike the Medicaid regulations which deny coverage to people making gifts, the VA home treats a person making gifts within 36 months as still having the money for purposes of determining whether the Veteran pays the higher fee or the lower fee.