NEW REGIONAL RATES
As we welcome in 2021, I want to thank all of you for helping me get through 2020 and all its pandemic fears and isolation. Beyond my personal family and friends, staying connected with you, our literally thousands upon thousands of clients and friends of Davidow, Davidow, Siegel & Stern, made this year tolerable and actually kind of fun. I hope in turn, these LISTEN TO LAWRENCE emails kept you connected as well and helped ease the way. Hey, if you learned something along the way that would be great too. I certainly did!
Here’s to a happy and healthy 2021!
So with the turning of the clock, what’s new?
Each year, the New York REGIONAL RATES are adjusted for inflation. Regional rates? What am I talking about? I am talking about how Medicaid assesses a penalty for transfers made within a look-back period.
If you have been reading my emails, you know that the look-back period when trying to qualify for Nursing Home Medicaid is 5 years and for Community Medicaid (i.e., home care) is 2 1/2 years (the latter being true if you apply after 4/1/21). Or in other words, when you apply for Medicaid, an audit of your financial life will be done for the above amount of time. If a gift was made within the look-back period, Medicaid will assess a penalty.
How do they assess the penalty? The answer is by dividing the amount of the gift by the REGIONAL RATE. The REGIONAL RATE is supposed to represent the average cost of a nursing home in, well, the region you live. The amount of the regional rate is updated each year and the chart that follows is the 2021 figures.
