Recent Trends in Medicaid

I have always said that the desire to quickly file a Medicaid application should be tempered by the ability to provide the documentation that is required for an application to be successful.  

The State is now scrutinizing every single transaction in and out of every single account that existed in the past 5 years.  Often the family member gathering the required documentation has no previous knowledge of the assets.  The State, however, thru its asset verification system, using the applicant’s Social Security number, can find these accounts.

It will then request the documentation with respect to these accounts but typically only provide 7 to 10 days within which to produce it.  Getting these documents from financial institutions is never easy.  Our clients are so often told that statements for closed accounts cannot be retrieved.  Not true, but you must be persistent and it will probably take more than 7 to 10 days to get them.

All this works in favor of the State.  Each time an application is denied for lack of verification (meaning a failure to provide the requested documents) you can refile so long as you provide the missing documents.  However, you may lose months of eligibility since retroactive eligibility can only go as far back as 3 months.  

Clients assume that the State will tell us everything that is missing all at once.  This is rarely the case.  It tends to come in piecemeal fashion which means if you are being reactive as opposed to proactive, you might need to refile more than once.  In other words, when you refile they can ask for something they didn’t ask for the first time you filed.  The application process could drag out over 6 months or more in the case of clients with  more transaction and accounts than average.  You then won’t get the Medicaid start date you were hoping for.