I live in Virginia. My Mother could no longer live alone so my sister and her husband moved my Mother into their home. My Sister put my Mother's home on the market for 20,000 less than the assets value. It stayed on the market for six months with no interest until my sister's son decided to keep the property in the family and bought the home for 20,000 less than asset's value. My sister put the difference in a bank account in her and my mother's name about 150.000.The only income deposited in the bank account was my mother's social security and a small pension. Over the next 2 years my sister and her husband spent the money from the joint account for their needs. Very little of the money was spend on my mother. When does the 5 year look back period begin? Does it begin with the original sell of the home when the bank account was established, or does it begin with the last bank transaction was made by my sister and brother in law two years later?
About the sale on the house. Any sale or transfer of real property (land, homes, auto's) are all recorded by the local assessor and dovetailed into the state database. So the amount will be recorded and noted somewhere…..and will eventually surface.
For Medicaid, if there is a property sale or transfer of large amounts of $ and the funds from it cannot be shown to be have spend on their needs or their care, then the state can impose a transfer penalty. Now the transfer penalty is pretty whack to figure out and I am very OCD on all this. The benchmark on penalty is whatever your state pays the NH for it's room & board daily reimbursement. Some states are low (like Texas is about $ 145.00 a day pitiful low) and other states high ($ 300 - 400 a day). Then you add to that the value of the property or the amount of $ that was improperly spent. Now this is where it gets sticky in that some states the penalty is set at the date of the property transfer or in other states at the time of the application. Could make a huge butt difference in $$.
For example, say mom gifted the property w/tax assessor set value of $ 100K to Sissy in Texas 2 years ago. So mom's Medicaid payment to the NH would face a transfer penalty of 689 days in which mom would have to be expect to private pay for the NH as it is a date of application time start. Transfer penalties are such that although they are fully accepted into the Medicaid program, they are ineligible for any payment from Medicaid for their expenses until the penalty # of days are done.
Transfer penalties are pretty sticky to deal with & personally I would get an elder law attorney to deal with it all, if this is in your future. Most of the time, the penalty comes about during the period of time when mom is already in the NH and "Medicaid pending" on her living @ the facility. Then 5 months into her stay, she gets a transfer penalty inquiry letter and also the NH gets the letter from the state. Family is totally in panic as the NH fully expects to be paid and like now for the thousands of dollars that mom owes the facility. If you signed off to be mom's financially responsible individual then you will have to come up with the funds or sign off on a contract to pay or mom will get a 30 day notice to move. This can get ugly too. ALthough the NH can't kick momma to the curb, if you do nothing, the state can do an emergency placement / ward of the state action which has all sorts of legal complications for you and family that will cost time & money. At my mom;s NH # 1, one of the ladies son's (a real azzhole imho) would not deal with her bill due to the transfer penalty of her old home to him which he sold, so she was moved to another NH in another county which was desperate for filled beds even if at the ward of the state paid rate. Just ugly and total panic for all and especially for grannie or mom, who are old & with dementia & don't understand why.
I have to say your sister and her husband should not only be ashamed of themselves but probably prosecuted for essentially robbing your mother. This is disgusting behavior.
Unless your not her POA.Sounds to me your Mother needs a new POA or a POA.Those people that is joint on her accounts should of been removed by her POA for this not of happened.Are you your Mother's POA?Who all is your Mother's POAs?Does she have more then one POA?Is there a POA?If there is a POA or more then one POA?Someones POA should of been revoked.If you was your Mother's POA and seating back watching others spend her funds?Your POA should be revoke for not stopping their spending.If your not her POA no worries for you.If you are?Medicaid will come after you for money missing.O-Yes 5 yrs back.Or all the POAs involved for that matter.