Totaled the car in both our names. Payment from insurance is in both names, so the $5,000.00 payment had to be deposited into our joint account, then transferred to my individual account. New loan, registration, insurance now in my name only. Since old car was joint property and was exchanged for a new car I figure that should not be a problem from a practical point. Since SNF spouse name was on the old car but not the new, and the $5K passed through our joint account, does this cause more paperwork for all of us?
Does your state do an annual renewal w/questionnaire for Medicaid?
If so, within it will be a line for status on assets & reporting changes to real property type of assets. You could wait for renewal to report it.
But if your state doesn’t do renewal, then I’d bet your supposed to report the change in assets within 30-90 days.
Whichever way, please keep in mind that Autos & homes as real property are tied into local tax assessor database and dovetails into overall state records so cars will surface eventually.
Whether it’s viewed as not an issue to me really depends on how exacting (read this as how much of a butt rash they could be) your states Medicaid is. If yours is community property state &/or Medicaid views property even if only in your name as joint asset, the car should not be an issue as you are allowed a (1) car under Medicaid rules but car has to be under whatever value placed by Medicaid (so no buying a Jag or Tesla by the community spouse). If it’s this path, imo your ok.
BUT if Medicaid goes all fine print on you it could be an issue as the month insurance paid 5k, that’s $2250.00 income to him and his asset thereafter as car is not owned jointly. Now He’s allowed 2k in assets to start with, so if he already had 2k in assets then adding in the $2250 to it makes him super ineligible for Medicaid as its $4250 income month check deposited and an asset afterwards building by his PNA too! If I were you, I’d spend his assets to definitely be under 2k ASAP and keep it always under 2k. Remember to add in whatever funds in his at the NH PNA (personal needs allowance) into his overall assets tally. Maybe keep assets under $1500. & then hope Medicaid views it as a wash as there’s a CS.
For my mom’s insurance check, the roofing estimate/job was more than what insurance paid by a few hundred. The check was written out to roofers from mom’s checking account (to which the insurance check was deposited). But they were slammed with work and didn’t get to mom’s house till 3 months later - which was fine as they tarped roof & they had done previous jobs over the decades - so $ stayed in her account for 4 months till roofing deposited it when they actually started the work. Check went through in the months (4) submitted for the annual renewal. (Medicaid wanted that months bank statement as well as 3 months prior). I didn’t know renewals were even done, beyond total surprise. I had already boxed & put all paperwork into storage. For even more fun, renewal had a 14 day turn-around from date of letter but was postmarked several days past that. But I digress, medicaid sent out a follow up letter as to the excess asset. I sent in a copies of insurance check with deposit slip and the check to roofing co dated same month as insurance deposit with a note that roofing co held check till actual work started. Mom got her re-eligibility letter the next month. My take on this is that as long as you can provide in a timely manner some sort of detailed paperwork to establish a plausible explanation your going to be ok.
Other than my car loan documents and the new registration/insurance cards or an accident report, the only thing I can add to the mix is a glossy picture of the new car. I didn't take a picture of the totaled car. Bank statements will show the $5K deposit/transfer so that will be crystal clear. My experience indicates even when crystal clear, Medicaid raises the bar for burden of proof. So I'm trying to be ready when the car issue comes up.