A Medicaid professional consultant helping an elderly woman to protect her assets and money from the nursing home spend down.

Medicaid Resource Eligibility

The different Medicaid resources when assessing eligibility: cash, investments, joint accounts

When planning assets clients need to consider your Medicaid resources for eligibility. The only way to preserve resources from Medicaid spend down is to itemize each one. This may be a time consuming task, but the final reward will be the ability to protect between 90 and 100% of all assets and resources that are owned prior to being placed in a nursing home. Clients should not stop here, however. Having a Medicaid plan after nursing home placement is just as important. The Medicaid applicant that is in the nursing home can still protect up to 85% of the assets or resources from Medicaid spend down. Of course, this is dependent on the current amount of income of the individual as well as the cost of care at the nursing home.

Medicaid resource eligibility of cash, CDs, bank accounts

When it comes to Medicaid resources cash is a resource that many applicants have and it needs to be considered in the assessment of Medicaid eligibility. This can include CDs, bank accounts, savings accounts, money market accounts and checking accounts. Cash is the resource clients want to have in order to save and operate. In regards to CDs, even if they are not coming due, the client must be aware that there are Medicaid consequences for the non-conversion of non-exempt cash assets.

Medicaid resource eligibility of married couples and joint checking accounts

Here are some rules to follow when considering Medicaid resources and the eligibility process. Any married couple should have a joint checking account. When planning for Medicaid, the balance of this account must be brought down to around $2,000. The spouse that is not in the nursing home should also have their own private checking account. This account can be owned with a child, but make sure that the Medicaid applicant's name is not on the account. When the joint account has to be depleted, the extra money can then be transferred to this account so that the well spouse still has some available resources.

Medicaid resource eligibility of investments like stocks, bonds, mutual funds

Investments, such as stocks, mutual funds and bonds are classified as non-qualified accounts. This means that it is an investment that is made with money after taxes have been paid. One thing that is important to know is that these accounts do need to be analyzed to determine what the tax ramifications are for liquidation and how these affect the client's Medicaid resource eligibility. Single applicants should liquidate their accounts. The money that is in these accounts will be used to pay for any expenses that are incurred during a penalty period while waiting for Medicaid eligibility.

There are many Medicaid resources that can be considered when determining Medicaid eligibility. In addition to this, there are different rules and regulations that can apply. It is important for people to be aware of these and plan accordingly. In some cases, Medicaid may try to force an individual to withdraw money from some retirement accounts.