Can My Parent Qualify for Florida Nursing Home Medicaid if He or She has Joint Assets?
The laws associated with the Medicaid application process are both complex and, in some ways, intimidating. Medicaid bases many of its decisions on the relationships the applicant has with others and how those relationships affect the applicant’s finances. For example, the relationship between a husband and wife is looked at much differently than the relationship between a parent and a child. This is especially true when it comes to joint bank and investment accounts.
Community Spouse
The community spouse in a Medicaid transaction is the spouse who will not be applying for benefits and will have access to the couple’s assets. For example, the community spouse is allowed to live in the couple’s house and is allowed a certain amount of money to live on each month from the couple’s income. The community spouse can also move money around in accounts owned by the couple without a great deal of hassle from Medicaid.
Parent – Child Is A Different Story
A joint account held by a parent and a child is going to create a lot of questions from Medicaid throughout the application process. Medicaid is going to want to know where the money comes from that is in the account, who has access to the funds, how are the funds used, and what type of access does the child have to the account.
Why Does It All Matter?
When the parent applies for Medicaid, there is a five-year look-back period where Medicaid will examine the parent’s finances and look for any large asset transfers that could have been used to pay for an assisted living arrangement. If there is a consistent history of the parent putting money into a joint account but the child taking that money out and using it, then the sum of those transactions could be used to delay the approval of the Medicaid application by several months.
Does A Joint Account With A Child Mean A Denied Application?
Medicaid has guidelines for all of its decisions, and that includes joint accounts with children. If it can be shown that the account was essential for the child’s well-being, then that could exempt the account from the look-back period. In order to prove something like this, you are going to need the help of an experienced Medicaid planning attorney.
When it comes to Medicaid approvals, there are often no concrete guidelines to follow. Our elder law attorneys have years of experience in handling crisis and non-crisis Medicaid planning situations, and we can analyze your joint account to see how it would impact your Medicaid application. Call us today and let us be the legal team that helps you and your family to navigate the difficult process of applying for Medicaid.