As we mentioned in the May edition of our newsletter, in April 2020, the NY State 2020 Budget Bill instituted a two-and-a-half-year look-back period for eligibility for New York Community Medicaid – i.e., the program which covers long-term home care services.
Although the State has not officially published any guidelines, a meeting between members of the NY State Department of Health and elder law attorneys revealed the following very good news with respect to the actual implementation of the new law:
- The look-back period will only apply to new applications submitted after January 1, 2021 (postponed from October 1, 2020).
- The length of the look-back period will be phased in – it will only apply to transfers made on or after October 1, 2020. This means that an application filed in January 2021 will need to provide financial documentation from the beginning of October 2020, three months prior. Applications filed in February 2021 must include four months of financial records back to October 2020. In this way, every month an additional month will be added to the look-back period until, in April 2023, a full thirty months of financial documentation will be required.
If you are thinking of applying for home care services in the near future, we encourage you to meet with us as soon as possible to discuss your planning so that transfers of your assets can be made prior to the look-back period beginning October 1, 2020 to avoid incurring any penalty regardless of when you apply.
Please feel free to reach out to us and we will be happy to assist you.
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