Does Medicaid also want credit card statements to look at during the 5-year lookback when you're applying for Medicaid?
I need to get myself prepared since my mom might need to go in a home soon and when she does, she'll need to get on Medicaid. I tried to find answers to this particular question on their site, but haven't had any success. And for some reason I couldn't even download their application for a long-term care. It is the Medicaid program in North Carolina.
Medicaid is looking for large withdrawls. That you may need to prove. Not gifting can be done in that 5 yr lookback. Even id IRS allows it. There will be a penalty.
They care about your owned assets. They care whether you are gifting your cash or assets to people. They ask whether you own your home or car or properties, etc. She was never asked to provide credit card statements at that point, only medical bills that were incurred in the 3 months prior to applying for Medicaid. We had to provide the actual invoices as proof.
In the basic initial application they didn't ask for cc statements BUT I think if they see something "fishy" in bank or investment statements then they will dig deeper, back 5 years max if that is the state rule. Medicaid rules are unique to each state, and my MIL's experience is in MN, back in 2016.
If you go to the social services offices they should have a hard copy of the application for you to take. I would get 2, 1 is your "scratch" form and one can be your final form for submission.
Simply to make sure that all of the expenditures on credit cards in her name are only for her benefit and that she is not using the card to gift (or conversely that someone is not using her card to make purchases for themselves and having her to pay the bill (which can also be considered gifting, or worse, if she is not aware of the charges, credit card fraud or identity fraud potentially or even elder financial abuse)
It is best to make sure that ALL financials are clean and free from anything that can look like gifting.
Since they are looking for large gifts, you can prepare by being able to show that a typical bill includes expected amounts for utilities, groceries, drug stores, etc.
Be ready to provide documentation for any unusually high statement to show it was for a necessary expense, not a set of cash advances from the casino to give away $5,000.