Selling a home after qualifying for Medicaid in Florida. What happens?
Mother, father, and daughter on deed to home for over 9 years. Parents qualify for Medicaid in nursing home. What happens if daughter sells the house while parents are still in nursing home?
Selling home in their name & yours will affect their Medicaid eligibility. Minimizing the Medicaid fallout can be done but imho you have to have a tight plan in place ahead of the Act of Sale. Depending on how much house sells for really determines how long they are ineligible and have to do a spend down to either re-apply or reinstated into Medicaid.
The month sold it is considered 2/3 their “income” & 50/50 split between parents and for all months thereafter the $ left from their initial 2/3 is considered an asset. Income is whatever the exact figure is that your states Medicaid has set, most have it as around $2,100 but varies by state, so the month of the sale it takes them over. Medicaid for couples in which both are in a facility & both on Medicaid allows for only 3k in assets between them. 3k that’s it. Whatever proceeds over 3k (read that as $1500 each) will have to be spent down on their care or their needs.
Be especially precise as to splitting all $ & costs 1/3 you & 2/3 them.
They will become private pay at the NH first & foremost. You as their DPOA can use some of the $ to buy them each a fully paid preened funeral & burial policy as long as its within your states $ limits (FH will likely know to the penny the ok by Medicaid amount). You can buy them or have them do things that Medicaid doesn’t cover or covers minimally - like dental care, new eyeglasses, hearing aids, a better walker or wheelchair. A reasonable amount of new clothes. If still competent and cognitive, they could pay to get their legal updated if needed. If their both in a NH, the days of doing anything creative with their $ has passed imo. Going to be a spend down needed.
Also IF you or family spent your own $ to get house market ready or any other parental costs, your folks cannot reimbursement you for their 2/3 share from the house sale $. It will look like “gifting” as far as Medicaid is concerned and will pose a transfer penalty onto them when they re-apply for Medicaid. If you have spent $ on the house, and you kinda need to be repaid, speak with an attorney asap regarding the feasibility of some sort of promissory note that enables you to be a lienholder on the property; so you can be paid from the proceeds outside of & before the $ is paid to your parents for whatever costs over your 1/3 share. Doing this after the fact will be hard but since your is a shared ownership there may be a existing pattern of payment/ reimbursement that you could use, this is ? for an elder law atty to figure out in advance of act of sale.
Realize that once Sale is done, it is recorded to the penny by tax assessor and that info dovetails into state database. Medicaid will find out to the penny what the spend down amount will be.
If it’s a low value property - like under 60k - at 2/3 split, with precise planning you might be able to get a 2ok spend down each pushed through within the month of the Act of Sale. IF closing set for first days of the month. So they start the month within Medicaid limits and spend down within the month so end the month within Medicaid limits. You have to have whatever checks cleared & payed out before EOM.
Some states can place a lien on property owned by the LTC Medicaid recipients. If so, that’s a lien that has to be released (paid) in order for sale to go through. FL is very pro property owner state, I don’t believe FL does this, so your folks get all of their 2/3 $.
I'm bumping this up so other's can see it. It is my understanding that they would lose medicaid until their 2/3 of the money is used up, but hopefully other's will chime in soon.
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Minimizing the Medicaid fallout can be done but imho you have to have a tight plan in place ahead of the Act of Sale. Depending on how much house sells for really determines how long they are ineligible and have to do a spend down to either re-apply or reinstated into Medicaid.
The month sold it is considered 2/3 their “income” & 50/50 split between parents and for all months thereafter the $ left from their initial 2/3 is considered an asset. Income is whatever the exact figure is that your states Medicaid has set, most have it as around $2,100 but varies by state, so the month of the sale it takes them over. Medicaid for couples in which both are in a facility & both on Medicaid allows for only 3k in assets between them. 3k that’s it. Whatever proceeds over 3k (read that as $1500 each) will have to be spent down on their care or their needs.
Be especially precise as to splitting all $ & costs 1/3 you & 2/3 them.
They will become private pay at the NH first & foremost. You as their DPOA can use some of the $ to buy them each a fully paid preened funeral & burial policy as long as its within your states $ limits (FH will likely know to the penny the ok by Medicaid amount). You can buy them or have them do things that Medicaid doesn’t cover or covers minimally - like dental care, new eyeglasses, hearing aids, a better walker or wheelchair. A reasonable amount of new clothes. If still competent and cognitive, they could pay to get their legal updated if needed. If their both in a NH, the days of doing anything creative with their $ has passed imo. Going to be a spend down needed.
Also IF you or family spent your own $ to get house market ready or any other parental costs, your folks cannot reimbursement you for their 2/3 share from the house sale $. It will look like “gifting” as far as Medicaid is concerned and will pose a transfer penalty onto them when they re-apply for Medicaid. If you have spent $ on the house, and you kinda need to be repaid, speak with an attorney asap regarding the feasibility of some sort of promissory note that enables you to be a lienholder on the property; so you can be paid from the proceeds outside of & before the $ is paid to your parents for whatever costs over your 1/3 share. Doing this after the fact will be hard but since your is a shared ownership there may be a existing pattern of payment/ reimbursement that you could use, this is ? for an elder law atty to figure out in advance of act of sale.
Realize that once Sale is done, it is recorded to the penny by tax assessor and that info dovetails into state database. Medicaid will find out to the penny what the spend down amount will be.
If it’s a low value property - like under 60k - at 2/3 split, with precise planning you might be able to get a 2ok spend down each pushed through within the month of the Act of Sale. IF closing set for first days of the month. So they start the month within Medicaid limits and spend down within the month so end the month within Medicaid limits. You have to have whatever checks cleared & payed out before EOM.
Some states can place a lien on property owned by the LTC Medicaid recipients. If so, that’s a lien that has to be released (paid) in order for sale to go through. FL is very pro property owner state, I don’t believe FL does this, so your folks get all of their 2/3 $.
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