Legal Question in Real Estate Law in Pennsylvania

You ask a two-fold question. First, this property is in Ontario, Canada. Any property in Canada will have to be resolved by a Candian attorney. If the deed is already in your and your siblings names, then your father no longer owns the property and Medicaid cannot seek to recover any funds from its sale.

Your second issue concerns Medicaid. Each state has its own Medicaid rules and your father would be best advised to consult with a Medicaid/Elder law attorney before he goes off and transfers any more assets. The price of an hour with a lawyer will be well worth any heartache and expense later if your father transfers his assets and then discovers he is not eligible.

If your father needs care, Medicare only pays for the first 120 days. After that, if your father needs to stay in the facility he needs to find a way to pay for it. He can do that by paying out of pocket, getting long term care insurance, by applying for Medicaid or maybe having the children chip in for awhile until the 5-year period has been reached. Each state has restrictions on what a person may keep and be on Medicaid. Usually they have to spend down assets but it depends on if they have a non-institutionalized spouse or children.

There is a five (5)-year look back period. What this means is that from the day that your father applies for Medicaid, Medicaid will look back in time 5 years and see if your father gave away (not sold) any of his assets. If the answer is yes, then your father will be ineligible for Medicaid for the balance of that 5-year period.

Once your father starts getting Medicaid benefits, then when your father dies, Medicaid is mandated by law to seek recovery of those benefits from your father's estate. With proper planning, your father will have protected his assets so that there will be no estate from which to seek recovery.

As I said, there are attorneys who specialize in this area of the law. Your father needs to sit down with one and allow the attorney to review your father's assets and the dates of any transfer so as to best protect your father's assets, maximize his ability to receive Medicaid and minimize any recovery from your father's estate by Medicaid.