My mother and stepfather owned a house jointly in Virgina. He gifted his half of the house to my mom in june 2013 and a year later they got divorced on april 2014. he entered a nursing home in August of 2015 and a Medicaid application was submitted for him. Is the house exempt from a look back period and penalty since they were married at the time of the divorce? If not what happens to my mom's house? Medicaid is also going to take the alimony that was court ordered. Can anyone help with this please
Quote from the pdf
Some items can be given away without penalty. They are:
• household goods and personal effects
• up to $4,500 of an automobile's value
• property that is essential to your self-support
• burial spaces or plots held for use of immediate family
• up to $1,500 set aside for funeral arrangements
• $1,500 in total life insurance on an individual
• any resources transferred to a child who is blind or disabled
• property for which you intended to receive adequate compensation
• home property when it is transferred to: your spouse or minor dependent child;
a blind or disabled child of any age; a sibling who has lived in the home for at least a year and who has some ownership interest in the property; or an adult child who lived with you for the last two years and who provided care that kept you out of a nursing facility.
If the transfer was not made in an effort to become or remain eligible for Medicaid, there may not be a penalty period. You must submit evidence to prove intent, such as the amount of your assets near the date of the transfer and your state of health near the date of the transfer.
If an asset has been transferred and the denial of Medicaid payment of long-term care services would cause undue hardship by resulting in your being removed from the facility or being unable to receive life-sustaining medical care, food, clothing, shelter, or other necessities of life, there may not be a penalty. You must submit clear evidence to prove any claim of undue hardship.
The attorney will be able to help gather evidence and address the issue of Alimony.
I'd be concerned that since they are divorced, that mom is not getting cc'd on the reams of correspondence between stepdad & Meducaid. Alt fvthus is very time specific to respond to. Who is handing step dads affairs? Are they on good terms with mom & you?
Whomever is his DPOA is going to be pivotal in all this. It's fab that mom has a court order for alimony but what I'd be concerned about is that his SS & other retirement check is going direct to the facility for his required by medicaid co pay (this is called the SOC - share of cost). So there is no opportunity for mom to capture the alimony. The facility isn't going to deal with this well - billing at NH seem to be admist chaos in most places.
Mom - I'm going on a limb on this - needs to do whatever to be considered the CS " community spouse" to get her court ordered alimony either viewed as CSRA or MMNA. Community spouse resource allowance or monthly maintenance needs allowance. What it is call depends on your state & the amount is set uniquely by each state. To get the max seems to needs legal to do btw.
You may want to contact moms divorce attorney if you can't find elder law. They are gong to know someone who has experience in May/Dec marriage issues whic this is kinda like.
If you would could you post what you find out along the way? Thanks as we all learn from each other.