Legal Question in Elder Law in Mississippi

Re: Can gov't. Take house?

Generally speaking, the government can take the house if the owners participated in some sort of fraud conspiracy against Medicare or Medicaid. So, it would be prudent to be very very straight forward, memoralize everything in writing, and never hold back any information Medicare or Medicaid might think will be material.

Medicaid has a 5-year look back requirement to determine eligibility for medicaid benefits. Any assest transferred during that period for less than fair market value will be constructively considered to still be in the beneficiary's estate. Any transferred value that would have caused the beneficiary's estate value to exceed Medicaid eligility requirements will result in denial of nursing home Medicaid benefits for a period that the property could have been used to pay the nursing home costs before reaching the eligibility threshhold.

One possible action will be to give the parent fair market value for the property. This can be in the form of transfer of property or valuable promises, e.g. private or commercial annuity to the grandmother. Another, is to pay the nursing home costs for the period of ineligibiity.

Re: Can gov't. Take house?

See 42 USC �1396p; as amended by P.L. 110-275 and P.L 111-5 about recovery of costs from trusts and annuities.