Medicaid Long-Term Care: Few Transferred Assets before Applying for Nursing Home Coverage; Impact of Deficit Reduction Act on Eligibility is Uncertain

Question: There is some concern that individuals transfer assets (at less than fair market value) in order to be eligible for Medicaid. Since Medicaid paid nearly one-half of the nation s total long-term care expenditures in 2004, analysis was needed to determine how prevalent this practice was. Finding: Using the NIA-funded Health and Retirement Study, GAO found that few elderly individuals had resources to support even a year s worth of private-pay nursing home care at the time they entered a nursing home. Medicaid-covered nursing home residents were less likely to have reported transferring cash than non-Medicaid-covered residents.