What happens to money? I drive a big truck and am looking to buy an economic car to drive back and forth to work. I have my dad's vehicle and pay the insurance on it and drive it back and forth to work but it is also a gas guzzler. He wants to sell me his truck for a couple hundred dollars so I can get it in my name and then take the truck and trade it in on a economy car. Is this possible and can he keep the money in his account or does it have to go to the nursing home since it's an asset?
I have very little knowledge of Medicaid, so there may be a legitimate way this can be done. I hope someone with more knowledge than I have will write. Another thing you can do is to propose it to your Medicaid case worker and see what he/she says.
I do recall that I read around here once that you could have an appraiser prepare a written appraisal of the car and if it's under $2000.00, you would be okay to sell it for the appraised amount, but I would do a lot of confirming before did any transfer. They will check on any title or DMV transfer and find out what happened. It's too risky to take any chances of getting someone disqualified for Medicaid, IMO.
Hopefully, some others will post who have dealt with this issue more closely.
1. The vehicle is in his name, so it is in the states database for registration and locally for taxation. Any sale or transfer will come up and to the penny. It is a simple couple of keystrokes for a medicaid caseworker to find this out. Any change in their assets has to be reported to Medicaid.
2. If sold for below Blue book value, there would be gifting issues / transfer penalty which could make them ineligible for Medicaid's payment to NH. Can you private pay for the NH? And for the likely months of ineligibility while the state does the transfer penalty inquiry? If done for below BBV, you better have something valid to establish why (like on letterhead statement from mechanic or car lot as to why vehicle is worth less)
3 if sold, then that $ is his asset. They are basically allowed 2k in assets, so depending on the amount, it could go into the asset base to be used for his needs over time. But if this takes him over the 2K, then it has to be spent down on his care or his needs ASAP (like within that month) - hearing aid, eyeglasses, walker - just whatever to be able to do a quick single item spend down so he starts the next month within the required medicaid asset limit. If its a low value car, buying stuff can work. But if it's worth quite a bit, then they would need to be suspended from Medicaid while you figure out how to do the spend down (like get the max prepaid NCV funeral policy, or dental work, or a tricked out wheelchair). If it's a car with significant value, you need to have a plan in place to get all this done within a month if you can to lessen Medicaid complications.
4. Does your state do annual medicaid renewal? My moms state TX does and you have to resubmit documentation on assets (& a bunch of other things as well, nothing but fun) and report any change in assets. If you don't disclose info, state can suspend Medicaid at best or place them ineligible at worst. Whenever there is a change on Medicaid status, they send you a letter BUT also send one to the NH. believe me the NH will require you to private pay with a signed contract in order for him to stay.
Stuff like this tends to snowball into other issues. By selling the vehicle and using it for your gain, you have broken your fiduciary duty as POA. Medicaid caseworker may have to contact SSA (so now you undergo the whole representative payee scenario); state & SSA could ask APS to investigate your suitability as POA.
I also wonder if insurance would be an issue. I totally could see the insurance company declining to pay a claim as the owner may not have the cognitive ability to allow use of vehicle.
Anything other than selling at BBV & using $ for him is problematic.
On the other hand, there is the question of what to do with the money he receives seeing as he'll have to spend down quickly. In our case, we'd dump it immediately on the pre-Medicaid pending bill at the NH. Your dad may have outstanding bills as well. This is a discussion you'll probably want to have with the Medicaid case worker.