If my grandmother has a small amount of assets, can she give them away without affecting her Medicare and other state medical fundings?
Question Details: She has maybe $15k in cd's for her grandkids.
I believe you have annual reporting requiremernts as far as the state medical funding. I suggest you go to medical website to determine what she can accumulate in assets without any changes occuring to her medical funding. If those CDs are in her grandchildren's name, then they maybe excluded in determining her asset allocation as far as medical funding is concerned.
Medicare is not dependent on your grandmother's assets, but MediCAID IS dependent on her assets. Some of the "means testing" for MediCAID is controlled by federal law and some is controlled by state law.
Your grandmother should NOT give any assets away without speaking with a qualified elder law attorney in her state. Federal Medicaid laws require every state to "look back" FIVE YEARS for any gifts. If there are gifts within those 5 years, the state may deny Medicaid benefits for long term care benefits.
Elder law attorneys can help seniors preserve assets for their needs and still qualify for Medicaid. These attorneys can also help seniors qualify for Medicaid even if they made gifts in the past 5 years. This area of the law is complicated, and I do not recommend that anyone try to figure it out without qualified help. The important thing to know is - do nothing without the advice of an elder law attorney.
