Living Trust And Medicaid Eligibility

The living trust can cause major problems.

Living trust and medicaid eligibility.

The medicaid program will pay for long term care if you can obtain eligibility. All living trusts are not created the same and this is a crucial issue if you re planning to use one as a way to qualify for medicaid for your long term care. Every advisor who recommends a trust or does estate planning should understand how the living trust affects the medicaid spenddown. Under sb 833 medi cal s ability to seek reimbursement for amounts paid from a medi cal recipient s estate would be limited to assets which pass as part of the deceased medi cal recipients probate estate the.

A typical medicaid trust might cost between 5 000 and 10 000. Medicaid considers the principal of such trusts that is the funds that make up the trust to be assets that are countable in determining medicaid eligibility thus revocable trusts are of no use in medicaid planning. Medicaid will pay for a nursing home subject to some rules one of which concerns your assets. Persons residing in assisted living residences receive assistance from medicaid either through hcbs waivers or through the state s aged blind and disabled abd medicaid.

If you establish and fund a revocable living trust the assets in the trust would be counted by medicaid if you were ever to apply for coverage. Most people do not know how the revocable living trust interplays with medicaid rules for long term care medical assistance eligibility. You may be aware of the fact that this program is only available to people with very limited financial resources. Under the new law for decedents dying after january 1 2017 assets held in a living trust would be immune from recovery.

Medicaid is the single largest source of health coverage in the united states. Medicaid is a joint federal and state program that together with the children s health insurance program chip provides health coverage to over 72 5 million americans including children pregnant women parents seniors and individuals with disabilities. During the look back period medicaid checks to ensure no assets were sold or given away for less than they are worth in order for one to meet the asset eligibility limit. A revocable trust is one that may be changed or rescinded by the person who created it.

We all love the revocable living trust rlt. Prior to discussing medicaid s eligibility requirements for assisted living senior living it is helpful for the reader to understand how medicaid pays for assisted living. Therefore it violates the look back rule. The countable assets limit for these benefits in mississippi is 4 000 for a single individual higher for a spouse at home.

The medicaid agency and a state court determined that her assets including those in the trust exceeded the allowable asset limit for medicaid eligibility.