Comments on: Medicaid Planning

By: sanford

sanford — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 22:50:33 +0000

@taye – Under proposed changes to Hawaii Medicaid rules, a copy of which I will be posting on this website shortly, there will be a 5 year lookback for all transfers made on or after February 8, 2006, which is the date on which President Bush signed into law the Deficit Reduction Act. What this means is that if a person gives away assets without receiving fair market value for the assets, and then applies for Medicaid for nursing home costs within 5 years, there will be a penalty imposed. The penalty will be a length of time during which the person will not be eligible for Medicaid. The length of the penalty depends on the value of the assets transferred. Generally, if assets are given away more than 5 years before the person applies for Medicaid for nursing home costs, those assets should be safe. The primary residence poses special problems. The primary residence is considered an exempt asset for eligibility purposes, but not for recovery purposes. In other words, even though the residence currently is not counted as an asset when you apply for Medicaid, under some circumstances, the government can place a lien on the residence after you qualify for Medicaid. A lien is like a mortgage, to help the government collect out of the value of the residence amounts that are paid by Medicaid for your nursing home costs. Also, the proposed new rules, which are scheduled for public hearing on July 28, 2009, provide that a person will not be eligible for Medicaid for long-term care services if her home equity interest exceeds $750,000. There are special ways of transferring the residence so that you still have the right to live there, and yet have the residence protected from nursing home costs.

By: taye tashiro

taye tashiro — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:03:22 +0000

thank you for your reply. if i want to qualify, is there a timing factor to consider. ie if i want to reduce my assets, must i do so a given number of years before i apply. i am not quite ready to use your services but would like to know when i should consider consulting you. do primary residence get exempted from the “assets”?

By: sanford

sanford — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 02:20:06 +0000

@taye – Good question. You can have considerable retirement income and still qualify for Medicaid for nursing home costs. With regular (non nursing home) Medicaid there is an income limit, but with Medicaid for nursing home costs, so long as your income is less than the nursing home costs, you can qualify for Medicaid if your assets are within the asset limits. As for the Medicaid asset limits in Hawaii, if you are married, the spouse in the nursing home can qualify for Medicaid if the combined countable assets of both spouses totals $111,560 or less. If you are single, your countable assets must be $2,000 or less. An annuity can be considered either as income or as an asset, depending on how it is structured.

By: taye tashiro

taye tashiro — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 01:20:11 +0000

the article on special needs in the Hochi says that you can have retirement funds and still qualify for medicaid. How? do annuities count as retirement funds in this situation.