Does the medicaid look back period of 5 years apply to a joint account my mother created?
The account has included my brothers and my name for more than five years. Would we be entitle to withdraw our third before my mother applies for Medicaid, and let her third run out after that?
If the bank account has your mom’s SS# as the identifier on the account, Medicaid is going to view it totally as mom’s account. She is account owner.
Even If you &/or your siblings contributed 100% on the account, or are signature’s or are PODs, or have checks with your name on them tied to the account...... it doesn’t matter, it’s moms account and considered an asset for Medicaid. To get around this could be done but your going to have to show in detail what you contributed and that there was some sort of memo of understanding as to ownership.
As an aside on this, IF her SS monthly income goes into this account, that’s another problem. SSA has very strict rules on co-mingling. Not allowed. SSA may make you go through the financial representative process.
I'm assuming that you will be applying for Medicaid fairly soon? If so, then Medicaid would treat a joint account as your mother's asset. I am pretty sure they would not "divide" the account between the co-owners, especially if the money all came from mom. I suppose you could appeal, but you would for sure have to show that you put your money into the account. It may have been established 5 years ago, but if you took any money out now, you would have to wait til the lookback years had run for this transaction. If mom wanted to gift you money over 5 years back, then you should have put it into you own account and it would be outside the lookback. Commingling funds is a big mistake.
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Even If you &/or your siblings contributed 100% on the account, or are signature’s or are PODs, or have checks with your name on them tied to the account...... it doesn’t matter, it’s moms account and considered an asset for Medicaid. To get around this could be done but your going to have to show in detail what you contributed and that there was some sort of memo of understanding as to ownership.
As an aside on this, IF her SS monthly income goes into this account, that’s another problem. SSA has very strict rules on co-mingling. Not allowed. SSA may make you go through the financial representative process.
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