Now I'm being told that since she needs housing that is being assessed on me? We did take the funds from my mother for the addition and the family agreed. Now because she went down faster than we thought I have to seek a home for her care. Can they take put a lien against my husband and I for that amount?
As for the lien, some states use liens to protect their interest and some do not. Also, a lien can only be placed on your mother's legal interest in the house, so if you never did that deed I mentioned, then no lien can be placed on your house. Finally, some states have now ruled that a lien expires upon the death of a joint property owner, so once again, the rule varies with the state you are in. Ultimately you will want to consult with an expert in elder law and Medicaid planning in your state to sort all this out.
So they will have to provide for up to 5 years of bank statements, property ownership or transfer or sale details, insurance policies and anything else that can have a cashed out value with their Medicaid application. (My mom's application was slightly over 100 pages and required an 3 year & 6 month documentation on all her financials.)
What can happen in the review is that the checks or transfers to you, will show up. When that happens the state can do a transfer inquiry in which you have to provide the details on the $ and why. Gifting is not allowed and probably the $ she gave to you will be viewed as gifting unless there was some sort of personal care contract or her ownership in the property existed. The state can do a transfer penalty on the Medicaid applicant. The penalty is based on your state's Medicaid reinbursement rate to the NH. Like in TX it's about $ 145.00 a day (which is low). So a 50K gifting would mean that for 345 days the state would not pay for mom's NH stay on Medicaid. Momma because she is now impoverished is on the Medicaid program but she is ineligible for payment by Medicaid till the penalty is worked through. If she is in a NH, they too get the penalty letter and expect for family or whomever signed her into the NH as financially responsible to private pay the amount due or she will be given a 30 day notice. Most NH admission are "Medicaid pending" and state that if Medicaid declines the application that they (the NH) can seek payment from any relative, spouse of the resident. Whether or not they can get it from you is whole other issue..... Most of the time, family moves the parent back into a family members home till the penalty period is over.
There won't be a lien on the property that's yours per se. But if the amount is large and the NH views you as responsible for the debt, their legal can come after you and your assets to recover payment on the debt. Just like any other creditor.
Transfer penalties are totally sticky and really unless you are very OCD and comfortable with legalese, you need to have an elder law attorney handle this in my humble opinion. If you haven't yet applied for NH Medicaid, I'd get an elder law guy to work with you from the beginning of all this. Good luck and keep a sense of humor in all this.