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Page 6 of 18 § 10:71-4.1 Financial eligibility standards; resources Agency rejected an ALJ determination that a Medicaid applicant was properly denied benefits based on the language of a trust into which she had transferred her residence more than five years earlier. Since the residence was the sole asset transferred and that transfer had occurred more than five years earlier, it was not within the five year look-back period and was not properly relied upon as a basis for a denial of benefits. C.P. v. DMAHS et al., OAL DKT. NO. HMA 10565-2017, 2018 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 1270, Final Agency Determination (June 21, 2018). Because the amount of countable resources available to a Medicaid recipient was properly evaluated as of the first day of every month, an ALJ's determination that the recipient's eligibility was terminated on the last day of the month in which her countable resources, which had increased due to the death of her husband, exceeded the permitted amount was incorrect. The ruling below was properly modified to utilize the correct date. In re Froehner, OAL Dkt. No. HMA 0056-2018, 2018 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 1142, Final Agency Determination (June 5, 2018). Medicaid applicant who retained the right to liquidate certain life insurance policies on the date on which he applied for benefits did not qualify for benefits on the application date because the value of those policies was countable towards the resource limit. That being so, the ALJ's report and recommendation that so concluded was properly adopted. R.C. v. DMAHS, OAL DKT. NO. HMA 7857-2017, 2018 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 156, Final Agency Determination (February 21, 2018). Medicaid application made on behalf of a married couple should not have been denied on the ground of excess resources. The resources that the agency deemed to be "excess" in fact were transferred to a valid, irrevocable trust prior to the commencement of the 60-month eligibility look-back period and thus were "unavailable" to the couple within the meaning of governing regulations. C.F. v. Hudson Cnty. Dep't of Family Servs., OAL DKT. NO. HMA 11517-17, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 824, Initial Decision (November 9, 2017). Though no exceptions were filed, the DMAHS director reversed the Initial Decision of an ALJ finding that the daughter of a Medicaid applicant who had since died had provided sufficient verification for the applicant to be considered for Medicaid benefits and that the agency should accept such documentation with an original application date and instead concluded that the credible evidence established that the daughter had failed to provide the needed information prior to the date of denial and that the agency properly concluded that it was unable to determine the applicant's income or whether her QIT was fully funded. S.A. v. Union Cnty. Bd. of Social Servs., OAL DKT. NO. HMA 3094-17, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 1046, Final Agency Determination (September 8, 2017). The agency's failure to comply with the regulatory deadlines for the processing of a Medicaid application notwithstanding, the applicant did not comply with proper requests for documentation concerning a special needs trust and certain insurance and annuity policies with the result that the agency could not verify the applicant's resources and properly denied the application on that basis. K.S. v. DMAHS, OAL DKT. NO. HMA 14539-16, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 705, Initial Decision (September 7, 2017). Unapplied deposit of $ 174,000 paid by the adult children of a Medicaid applicant in connection with her placement in a continuing care community (CCC) was properly considered a "countable resource" for the purpose of determining the applicant's eligibility. Even though entrance fees were not explicitly listed as an excludable resource under governing state regulations, federal law including 42 U.S.C.S. § 1396p made it clear that entrance fees that met certain criteria were properly considered "countable resources." Here, because the applicant could access the entrance fee to pay her expenses associated with her residence at the CCC once the conditions in the applicant's contract with the CCC were met, the social services board acted properly in treating the entrance fee as a countable resource for purposes of determining Medicaid eligibility. A.T. v. Morris Cnty. Bd. of Social Servs., OAL DKT. NO. HMA 10162-17, 2017 N.J. AGEN LEXIS 654, Initial Decision (September 4, 2017). Transfer penalty imposed upon an applicant for Medicaid-only benefits on account of the sale of his home was properly calculated based on tax-assessed value for the property of $ 220,500, adjusted by use of the 2015 Equalized Valuation Ratio to $ 217,305. No value could be assigned to the repairs that were alleged by the applicant to be required because the certificate of occupancy inspection report was unsigned and no estimates of the cost of the repairs that were allegedly needed were submitted. Moreover, the value of the property had to be