No, provided you qualify for Medicaid benefits when your funds are gone. That won’t happen if you give away your home or money without proper guidance from an elder law attorney. Medicaid benefits will also be denied and your spouse and children put at risk if an application is not properly documented. That’s the most common reason for a Medicaid denial. In Pennsylvania, children can and will be responsible for a parent’s nursing home bill if the parent fails to qualify for Medicaid benefits. This is referred to as “filial support.” Children can be held liable even if they received nothing from the parent and are not even involved with the nursing home admission or with the benefits application process.  Gifts made within 60 months immediately prior to the filing of a Medicaid application will incur a transfer penalty in the form of a period of ineligibility for benefits. There are ways to legally gift assets and still qualify for Medicaid benefits when funds are gone. But if not done properly and benefits are not timely approved, as noted above, the children can be on the hook even if they received nothing and were unaware of a parent’s prior gifting to others.  Proper planning will avoid these problems.

Contact Vasiliadis Pappas Associates to learn more about your options and other measures to protect yourself.