Is it OK to give away my assets? What are “penalty periods?”

Beware that if you give away assets, you could be creating periods of ineligibility for Medicaid benefits. In Connecticut, for every $13,512 you give away, you are ineligible for Medicaid benefits for one month.

For example, a gift of $50,000 results in a 3.7 month penalty period ($50,000 divided by $13,512 = 3.7 months).

Penalty periods start to run when a person would otherwise be eligible for Medicaid, not on the date that the gift is made.

Click here to watch Brendan explain penalty periods.

The bottom line: the sooner you make a gift and the later you apply for Medicaid, the better. For people in ill health or with very few assets, it might not be practicable, as a result of the federal law changes, to make any gifts.

For more about transfers, check out:

How Transfers Affect Medicaid Eligibility

Be Careful: Transferring Assets to Qualify for Medicaid in CT May Backfire