Beware Medicaid’s ‘five-year rule’
By Staff
Saturday, October 29, 2016
In the last several weeks, we have addressed the medical and financial requirements necessary for seniors to receive Medicaid assistance with long-term care. You may have noticed that nowhere in those columns did we mention the so-called “five-year rule,” a rule that many have heard about but do not really understand.
The “five-year rule” provides that a Medicaid applicant who has given away assets within five years of applying for Medicaid assistance will be penalized for making that transfer. The purpose, of course, is to prevent people from purposely impoverishing themselves just so that they can qualify for Medicaid assistance.
The penalty is not a monetary penalty. It is a penalty in time. Specifically, it is the period of time in which the applicant will not be eligible to receive Medicaid assistance even if there is a medical need and the …
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