My sister and I recently applied for Medicaid Dec 2021 for our mother (age 95) who has resided in a nursing home since Feb 2020. We are concerned about being denied Medicaid for the following reasons.
Many years ago, my mother added me to her bank accounts in case she was disabled and unable to pay home expenses. This occurred after our father went into a nursing home 2005 -2010, initially as private pay then Medicaid coverage. I know my mother was fearful and wanted peace of mind for me to access her accounts. What I didn't understand at that time was being her POA gave me / my sister that access. Since I live local, Mom picked me to put on her accounts. I don't know the setup - if it was as OR accts or AND accts with my name.
In addition, over 30 years ago I had added mom to my personal checking account when I was doing extensive out of state traveling for work. Again, it was for emergency access only to pay bills if I was detained somewhere. (Europe on 9/11). I had forgotten about Mom's access status to my checking account until my sister noticed mom's name linked to my old account. The bank could not remove my mother from my personal account, which is where my monthly social security is deposited. The Bank advised me to close my account to get my mother off it and to create a new checking account for me. So I followed these instructions June 2021.
Our mother was living independently as of July 2018 (age 91)- where upon she could no longer safely care for herself. After much stress and fighting with her we managed to convince her to sell her home and move into an assisted living apartment in Aug 2018 until Feb 2020. The sale of the home covered her rent and other living expenses. It was at this time that I accessed her bank account to make payments to the AL facility. Prior to that, my mother controlled and did her own bank transactions. My sister and I had no knowledge of her personal business as Mom was very private and independent.
Since the death of our father Aug 2010, our mother receives a part of his monthly annuity pension plus a very small social security check for herself. Upon looking at the past 5 years, my sister and I saw a trend where our mother made monthly cash withdrawals for the pension. She was very old fashioned to pay cash for living expenses, eating out, hair, car gas, etc. and only used a credit card if necessary - rarely. It appears she kept left over unspent cash at home (not smart - but this is what she appeared to have done). Then early the following year when home taxes and insurance were due - she would make a cash deposit back into her checking account. It is obvious to see tracking these cash withdrawals/deposits between her 3 bank accounts BEFORE Aug 2018. It all stops after she moved into the assisted living apartment and the home sale.
So far, Medicaid has denied our application 4 times. Twice because the nursing home social worker missed dead lines and did not include bank documents I passed her. So now my sister and I are trying to submit these bank documents to Medicaid directly. There is no more money left from the sale of the house - over $200K was already paid to the nursing home at $15K per month. There is no life insurance - only the monthly pension and social security deposit. My sister had to setup a QIT account because mom's monthly income was just over the state cutoff limit by about $75. There is less than $300 in mom's 3 bank accounts - she has outlived all her money at age 95. She is mentally and physically disabled and totally dependent on nursing home care.
The stress is unbearable for us with the multiple Medicaid denials and questions over my personal old/closed checking acct and mom's bizarre behavior moving cash money between her accounts. I do not know how else to explain these past circumstances.
TG Mom kept all her Statements. I had the 5 yrs needed. I was then given a list of things I needed to provide. Any accounts with Moms name on them are considered hers unless you can prove otherwise. I was on my Moms accts and had no problem with Medicaid, because I never co-mingled our money. Moms bank statement showed all her transactions. Money going in and going out. Her name on your acct may not matter because you should be able to prove its your money, she was only on it to help you. The house, as long as she received Market Value and the money was put aside for her care, that also should not have been a problem. If you sold it way under, then there maybe a penalty that needs to be satisfied. Meaning you care for Mom or pay for her care.
Did your sister use a lawyer to set the UIT account up? To me sounds like you know whats what. Maybe you should sit down with a Medicaid caseworker to explain how Moms money was spent in last 5 yrs. When I gave the caseworker the 5 yrs of statements, he took only 4 a year. If the caseworker feels this is all too much for them, then maybe a lawyer. But, I understand the transferring of money. You may need to provide 5 years of statements from all 3 accts so the caseworker can see what you mean with transferring money.
I know, this is hindsight, but you should have never relied on a NH clerk to make sure an application is done correctly and on time. I told my Cousin this when he started the Medicaid application for his Mom. The Office of Aging told him the same thing. Maybe the O if Aging can help u in some way.
Make the caseworkers job as easy as possible by finding a way of showing the money being transferred. Its now 2022 and you say these transfers stopped in 2018. That means you have less than 2 years of statements showing transfers.
Looking back, we had very poor direction and communications from the nursing home social worker who supposedly only does Medicaid applications. (She was very bad replying to emails or returning phone calls and tracking documents I passed her. HUGE RED FLAG) My sister did consult with an elder attorney (he helped our mom years ago when our father went into a nursing home then needed Medicaid too). He directed us to setup the QIT at the bank and it really was an easy process. Our mom's monthly income amount was slightly over the cutoff limit which is why the QIT was required.
Also, it was easy for me to provide the printed bank documents. The problems occurred when we realized the nursing home social worker was missing Medicaid deadlines. The denial letters were asking for documents and information that we had previously passed to the social worker. She certainly made this a nightmare for us. We are done with her after contacting Medicaid directly which we should have done from the start after a very hard lesson learned.
Good Luck!!
There is a clear paper trail of who used the accounts and who wrote checks.
https://www.agingcare.com/articles/joint-bank-accounts-affect-medicaid-168094.htm#:~:text=Medicaid%20assumes%20that%20the%20parent,adverse%20effect%20on%20Medicaid%20eligibility
I would suggest you consult with a Medicaid Planner for her home state. You'll be able to give this person all the history and they will know all the rules for your mom's home state -- and it will be accurate info that is actionable.
Fast forward to the present where we have run out of funds after home sale and liquidating all bank accounts.
Plus, I had ask the bank to printout a detailed document of my closed checking account which I can no longer access online. This printout clearly shows my former employer check deposits and written checks by me to pay personal living expenses. My mother never touched this account - except her name is linked to it.
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