My Dad (78) lives in Louisiana and has Parkinsonism. How can he spend down his asset (rental) to be eligible for Medicaid?

AK - I think the renting of property allowability would be renting out their homestead. They are allowed in most cases to keep their "home". If there is another property ( separate from their home, that is), that is not exempt but an asset that would make them ineligible for Medicaid as they are not impoverished if they can own a home and then a rental property as well.

To me, It reads from the OP that her dad has a home plus 2 other properties - of which 1 was sold last year with $ from that to one of his daughters (hello, transfer penalty!) BUT he still has another non- homestead property that is rented. I can't see LA medicaid approving him with a nonexempt rental property asset that can be sold to pay for his care even after the whole transfer penalty is worked through.

Probably the only way to have non- homestead assets are if in a LLC or INc that does not ever produce a K -1 with their SS# as to ownership. So no easy linkage to data match up. But if thats you, your likely gonna be in the group that have the funds to private pay & in a facility that just does not ever take medicaid.

The transfer will indeed be a problem, as will the expenses of the private home. As to the rental property, I seem to remember reading something on this site (maybe from one of the experts) that rental property could be kept while on Medicaid, but all income from the property would go to the NH as part of the SOC. It sounded like a bit of a record-keeping nightmare, but it was possible. I assume that MERP would apply to the rental property as well as the person home.

He won't qualify for LA Medicaid based on what you've indicated is my guess. He will have issues with: transfer penalty due gifting to your sister AND non exempt assets AND his assets are over 2k ( assets not income). There are all sorts of complexities with these, you & him need to get a NAELA atty visit before any application is ever submitted.

They are allowed to have their home (& any attached land if it can come under the same PPIN) as an exempt asset. He could be asked to be able to show a homestead exemption. This would be the postcard or statement you get from the parish this fall. The home cannot have a value of over 500K too. If Erroll Williams is his assessor, all properties are getting new value with huge increases as stuff was way undervalued in the old multiple assessor days. If he has changed his DL to show your address as his "home", he could have homestead voided too so he would have 2 properties that are nonexempt assests.

The rental property if in his name will be considered a non exempt asset and would need to be sold for fair market value with the proceeds of the sale used as spend down. It may not show up in the initial caseworker review (if not disclosed) but will eventually and cause a retroactive ineligibility to be done.

LA is really trying to move Medicaid funding from general waivers to enrollment in PACE for the nonNH needing elderly population. What are you thinking that Medicaid will be providing & paying for? If its AL, the waiting list for those already Medicaid eligible is like 7k names long.....getting an AL waiver is probably going to need 2 -3 years of private pay before his name will come up to get the limited # of waivers. Many facilities do not accept Medicaid at all.

If this is about dad moving into a NH & getting Medicaid to pay for it, realize that under Medicaid rules he is required to do a copay (his SOC - share of cost) of any & all income to the NH. He is allowed a small personal needs allowance of $50. There will be none -nada -ziltch of his $ to pay for any costs on his home or property ever anymore. You or family will need to pay all costs (taxes, insurance, utilities, etc) from now till he dies and then through probate AND the property can be subject to estate recovery. It's like having a 2nd or 3rd home but without any assurance of ownership. Most of us cannot afford a 2nd home, but if you can and don't mind risk, maintaining the elders home can be done.

The $ dad gave to your sister will have a transfer penalty. The data on real property is just there & to the penny as to what sold for & when. He would need to wait till sometime in 2019 to apply to medicaid to be beyond the 5 yr lookback.

Really see a NAELA atty & soon.

Giving your sister the profits on sale unless they had a formal caregiver agreement will probably trigger a Medicaid penalty. The lookback on asset sales and transfers is 5 years. You need to talk to a lawyer experienced in both elder care and Medicaid for your state. If he paid her as caregiver, he will need records of payment and who paid taxes etc. the rental value may exceed assets, without knowing exact #s can't really be sure. Many area agencies of aging will have a list of lawyers. Some of them will consult for free or reduced rates.