Medicaid look back and money lost in a scam. Anyone have firsthand knowledge of how I document that money that was lost?

The police report should suffice as proof of the fraud. The attorney will know how to word it. It may also come down to the particulars of the scam. If they thought they were buying something and never got it - that would be pretty reasonable. If they thought they were making a donation for some good cause, that might still be considered gifting. Take all the paperwork you have to the atty and ask.

If it was in relation to a credit card (not gift card), they may not be liable for any unauthorized transactions. If the bank involved the police then maybe a lawyer can help with financial elder abuse. That's a lot of money, I'm so sorry.

See if you can itemized deductions. You may be able to write a portion or all of the scam off, then lookback is a mute point.

The police report should take care of any issues with Medicaid. The $ is gone due to a crime. Police report shows this. That the police cannot arrest the grifters - as they are gone in the wind - doesn’t matter, it was still a crime against them. It’s not like they wrote a check out to you for 9K, that would be gifting & an issue for Medicaid.

If the bank officer who contacted the cops is still there, I’d suggest you try to get them to do a timeline statement on bank letterhead as to what happened, the amounts and when they contacted police. Just to have a second verification as to what happened. It will be fine.

As an aside on this, there was a poster eons ago on this site whose mom had been swindled by a granddaughter big time. Like the kid had forged Grans signature on private student loans, had her co-sign for a car, plus check$ every so often. Then atop this, gran paid for most of the girls wedding. LSS it was 6 figures of “gifting” & debt gran faced. Yeah lil Missy defaulted on her student loans. Out of state DPOA was lil Missys aunt and she was - like most of us - pretty hands off on her moms finances as everything seemed just fine. Then Mom falls, needs a NH and DPOA finds that huge amt of $ gone and mom doesn’t have $ to pay for the NH. Medicaid would place a transfer penalty till forever against her application. She ended up contacting APS and got them to open an investigation on “abuse of a vulnerable adult”, then she filed a police report on lil Missy using info in APS investigation. The police report was what Medicaid needed to overlook the transfers, so her mom became eligible. Lil Missy got a fine & some community service time.

Five year look back will end for that problem September of 2024. I think someone said it has to be 5 yrs and one month. So if either needs LTC within that 5 years hopefully they can pay privately until that time.

Be aware, that if one parent needs LTC the other would be the Community Spouse. As such, Medicaid allows assets to be split, CS can stay in the home and be given enough of their monthly income to live on.

This is just a guess, but I would check the IRS regs for reporting fraud, as you'd probably report the loss anyway.     While it's not Medicare, the IRS does have standards for reporting fraud, and they might be comparable to, or provide some insight into addressing it for Medicaid.

Sorry to learn about the scamming of your parents.    I hope the police and fraud units are eventually able to identify these people.

I do not have first-hand knowledge but if I were in your situation I'd keep all your communications about the investigation in writing, in chronological order. The lawyer might have the bank sign an affidavit about their knowledge and involvement. When you submit the app you can include a summary of what happened, along with the "proof" paperwork. I would not mention about the cash since that wasn't on any radar and you don't really know firm facts about it anyway. If this isn't enough for Medicaid, they will send a letter out to you requesting more "proofs" and you usually have 1 week to submit any further requested information -- so be sure to open your mail every day and get them what they ask for asap. If you miss this deadline they will make you start the process all over again. Been there, done that. I hope all goes smoothly with the app!