Recently we’ve referred to the community spouse a super hero. For this super hero, the special abilities aren’t mutations or the result of a yellow sun – she can’t fly and he’s not super-strong. Instead, their powers are tied directly to their status as the healthy spouse – the spouse who doesn’t need nursing home care. [Read More]
Watch Your Language: Non-countable Resource
Once you’ve disclosed all your resources to Medicaid, it’s up to the state to determine which ones are countable and which are non-countable. The term “non-countable resource” is defined quite narrowly. It only includes a very small list of specific assets that the federal government has said should be disregarded by the Department of Human Services. [Read More]
Watch Your Language: Countable Resource
If you’re asking Medicaid to help pay for nursing home care for a loved one, you’ll have to tell the state about everything they own. Everything. It’s the state’s job to determine whether they’re eligible based on the value of those assets that are considered countable resources. [Read More]
Watch Your Language: Community Spouse
In our last entry we talked about what it means to be the institutionalized spouse. But the mild-mannered spouse who is not in the nursing home has special “powers” and a special title to go with it: community spouse. [Read More]
Watch Your Language: Institutionalized Spouse
Institutionalized. Sounds kind of scary, right? Fortunately, when we’re talking about Medicaid, saying someone is the institutionalized spouse really only means that they are the nursing home resident, the person who needs Medicaid coverage. [Read More]
Watch Your Language: Penalty Divisor
If you’ve transferred assets within the lookback period, the state is going to assess an eligibility penalty period based on the value of all the transfers you made within that 60-month window. The penalty period can be calculated by dividing the value of that gift by the penalty divisor. [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]
Devils, Details, and Deadlines: Calculating the Penalty Period
If you can’t prove you didn’t make a transfer to get on Medicaid, that transfer becomes a disallowed transfer. And that’s bad because a disallowed transfer means a penalty period will be imposed, delaying the time you are allowed to receive Medicaid coverage for the nursing home. The real question becomes: how do you calculate the penalty period? [Read More]
The length of the penalty period depends on the value of the assets transferred.
Watch Your Language: Penalty Period
A transfer occurs anytime you sell, trade, or give away money or property. Sometimes a transfer is for fair value, such as when you trade in your car or buy groceries. Sometimes, though, you make a transfer without expecting anything in return – like a birthday or Christmas gift. This is called a disallowed transfer, and it means you will not be eligible for Medicaid for a certain period of time called the penalty period. [Read More]
