A Medicaid professional consultant helping an elderly woman to protect her assets and money from the nursing home spend down.

Medicaid 3 Year Lookback

Medicaid 36 month look back

In addition to the myth about gifting, another common myth is the 36-month lookback rule. This rule states that any gifts or transfers that are made within a 36 month period prior to applying for Medicaid will disqualify the applicant. Unfortunately, many people believe this rule to be true and they postpone applying for Medicaid based on that 36-month period of time. By looking at this rule in this manner, many residents that are already in nursing homes may face financial difficulties during this period.

It is suggested to never heed the advice of any Medicaid caseworker. In the past, there was a case in Iowa in which the myth about the lookback rule was told to an individual applying by a caseworker. This myth ended up costing the family a lot of money, almost 3 years worth of nursing home care.

One other common myth is that an individual is only allowed to gift $10,000 per year. This is a myth that many people still believe to be true. This rule about the $10,000 annual gift applies to tax laws and has nothing at all to do with Medicaid eligibility.

Medicaid described as very difficult to grasp & unintelligible

Quoting John Milton, one court described the laws that govern Medicaid as being a "Serbonian Bog." These laws have also been referred to as "labyrinthian", an "aggravated assault on the English language" and "almost unintelligible to the uninitiated." This basically means that the laws pertaining to Medicaid are very difficult to grasp and understand. The result of this lack of understanding ends up having most people believing myths, such as it being illegal to give away any assets, being ineligible for Medicaid if assets have been gifted within 36 months and having to give your house to the government or having to sell it in order to qualify for Medicaid.