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Title 8: Medicaid Page 50 Iowa Department of Health and Human Services Employees’ Manual Chapter D: Resources Transfer of Assets Revised September 13, 2024 Multiple Transfers
4. Mrs. C transfers $3,000 to her daughter on February 25, 2006. She enters a nursing facility on March 3, 2006. On April 3, 2006, Mrs. C inherits $3,500 and transfers it to her son. On June 10, 2006, she applies for Medicaid payment of her nursing facility care. The worker determines that the transfers were made in order to qualify for Medicaid. Since the transfers were made after February 8, 2006, the worker totals the two transfers and treats them as one transfer. The penalty period is figured by dividing the total of $6,500 by $3,697.55, with a result of 1.76 months or 1 month and 23 days. If there were no penalty for transferring her assets, Mrs. C would have been eligible for Medicaid payment of her facility care effective March 3, 2006. Since the date the first transfer was made is earlier than the date she would otherwise have been eligible, Mrs. C’s period of ineligibility begins on March 3, 2006 (the day she would have been eligible). The penalty period lasts through April 25, 2006. If Mrs. C is otherwise eligible, she can be approved effective April 26, 2006. Return or Partial Return of the Transferred Asset Legal reference: 20 CFR 416.1246(a)(2), 441 IAC 75.23(5)“c” If the transferred asset is returned, there is a change in the period that the uncompensated value of the asset affects eligibility. If the asset is returned in its entirety, the transfer penalty is expunged as of the first moment of the first day of the month after the return. If the asset is partly returned, the period of ineligibility is determined by the difference in the value of the property transferred and the value of the property returned. Determine the changed period of ineligibility and apply it beginning the first month the transfer penalty was imposed. The increase or decrease in value of the property transferred that may have occurred due to inflation or deflation from the time of transfer to the time of return does not affect the length of the period of ineligibility. Changing the disqualification period does not necessarily establish eligibility. Assets returned are not considered income but are a countable resource if retained in the month following the month they were returned.