I hear that Medicaid can go back 5yrs. If parent is already in a nursing home, can some money be gifted or can you pay children's bills?

You are so right if I have to ever do medicaide I will get the help more from a lawyer I tried to do my husbands by myself and it was driving me crazy-he died before it was very far along but social service wanted me to do it anyway saying there would be bills from the nursing home for rehab-my daughter worked in social service at the time and told me not to fall for that one -I called the nuesing home and only owed for 3 days od bed hold so I can social service back and cancelled my appointment and was very firm about. it.

Nursing homes are very expensive - a patient can easily use up all their savings paying for the high rent every month year after year. What if your parent outlives his/her savings? When they get down to $2000, if they need to remain in the nursing home, they'll have to apply for Medicaid. And you can bet Medicaid will be looking back on any money spend in the past five years, like gifts and paying for the childrens' bills.

It is best to go to an elder lawyer in your area who will know all the rules and give you the right advice and if you do not have medicaide the social worker can help you with the application-they do look back 5 yrs. when you apply to make sure someone does not give away a lot of money so they will qualify for medicaide and if you have assests that are too high you will have to spend down and pay for the nursing home until you reach what they say you can have-the lawyer will be able to help you it gets very complicated and you want to make sure everything is done right.