Mom needs to spend down about $3,000 to qualify her for Medicaid. Mom is very connected to her church. She pay ties monthly. once she goes on Medicaid she will not be able to make any ties. She would like make this a donation to her church for this amount . Will this penalize her .
So if the state considers it gifting, that 3K to the church, you will have to match to private pay to the NH before Medicaid will pay. Mom is now impoverished so she can't pay but the NH expects someone to pay and that will likely be you. Do you have an extra 3K sitting around to spare? Is her church going to pay the 3K penalty - I doubt that.
3K isn't very much $$ and really mom would be best off buying things that she will need in the future. Medicaid does NOT pay for anything dental so if she needs something dental done that easily will use up $. Or buy her new eyeglasses or hearing aids - the ones on Medicaid are minimal if even covered. If she doesn't have a funeral or burial policy, use the 3K towards that. Most traditional funeral & burial run 5 - 10K so it would not pay for all but for at least some of the costs. Otherwise you will end up paying for all this personally in the future.
Remember that once they are on Medicaid all their monthly income (their SS and any retirement they get), they are required to do a co-pay of their income to the NH. This is know as their SOC - or share of cost. The states have a personal needs allowance for them - from $ 35 - 90 a month - but the allowance really is only enough to pay for their hair cuts and some clothing replacement or other spending needs @ the NH. You will end up spending some of your own $ on mom. The NH laundry is harsh on clothes as its super high heat and with disinfectant so their clothes that could have lasted for years at home now gets worn out in a few months. Stuff walks @ the NH too, shoes & eyeglasses & sweaters most often. Even if you mark them, either they leave them somewhere or another dementia patient puts them on. The allowance alone just can't cover all the stuff they need replaced.