How Long Is Medicaid’s Look Back Period?
It may be possible that you have a nursing home stay in your future and you want to protect your assets. How long is Medicaid’s look back period?
Nursing home care is often an integral part of the daily care of those who can no longer take care of themselves. Those who are considering this option as most suitable for their own care, or for the care of a loved one, should avail themselves of the opportunity to get as much information as possible to make the right choice. One important fact that they should explore is, how long is Medicaid’s look back period?
How long is Medicaid’s look back period?
Since the purpose of Medicaid is to provide medical assistance for those who are financially unable to provide for themselves, there necessarily must be some method for Medicaid to discover if indeed the recipient has no resources to draw from to pay for their own needs. One of those methods is the 60 months look back period.
Why does Medicaid use the 60 months look back period?
Medicaid uses the 60 months look back period in an effort to prevent those who are entering a nursing home from assigning their assets to another person or persons immediately prior to that stay for the purposes of hiding their assets rather than using them to pay for their care.
Why is this beneficial to Medicaid?
As stated previously, Medicaid is intended to assist those who have no resources to help themselves. Also Medicaid is public funded from taxpayer dollars. If people were allowed to take advantage of this much needed service when they were able to pay themselves there would be nothing left for those who could not pay. By using the 60 months look back period available assets could be used before Medicaid is called upon to help.
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