Watch Your Language: Trust

One of the most common questions I hear during our Mutual Interviews is, “Do I need a trust?” And the typical lawyer answer is, “It depends.” In order to answer that question, we need to start by defining what a trust actually is. [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Snapshot Date

When you first submit a Medicaid application for nursing facility care (and Elderly Waiver, in Iowa), DHS takes a “snapshot” of your financial status as of the date you first moved into the nursing home. This is called the “snapshot date.” [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Asset

In the Medicaid world, the term “asset” is used when discussing Medicaid’s transfer penalty rules. As a result, “asset” includes both income and resources. [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Resource

The third test in the Medicaid application process considers whether the applicant has too many resources. But what is a resource?[Read More]

Watch Your Language: D.R.A.

In 2005, Congress passed legislation which, among many, many other things, changed the way a Medicaid applicant’s resources and past transfers are considered. This bill is called the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and was signed by the President on February 8, 2006.[Read More]

Watch Your Language: Income

The Medicaid definition of “income” comes from federal law and reads as follows: Income is “[a]nything a person receives either in cash or in kind that can be used to meet the person’s basic needs of food, clothing, or shelter.” [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Attribution

Here’s how the Iowa Medicaid manual describes an attribution: “When one spouse enters a medical institution or applies for a home- and community-based services waiver, […] resources are attributed to the ‘community spouse’ to protect sufficient resources for the community spouse’s maintenance.” What does that mean in normal english? [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Unavailable Resource

The primary classification of assets under the Medicaid rules is whether an asset is countable or non-countable. But there’s a special class of resources that is both countable and non-countable – an exception to the general rule: the unavailable resource. [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Lookback Period

If you’ve heard anything about Medicaid, you’ve probably heard about the lookback period. In Iowa, the lookback period is the period of time starting with the day you apply for Medicaid and extending back through time for sixty months. We break that definition down after the jump. [Read More]