Joint Account with Medicaid Recipient

Medicaid can go after assets of the beneficiary to help pay for the care being provided as part of the estate recovery component of the law. Medicaid may treat assets in a joint checking account as half owned by the beneficiary - you should check with your Medicaid office.

These links have further detail on Medicaid rules:

http://www.elderlawanswers.com/Elder_Info/Elder_Article.asp?id=2751

http://www.caring.com/questions/medicaid-eligibility-joint-accounts

The previous answer addresses estate recovery which comes into play after a Medicaid recipient passes. While an applicant/recipient is living, Medicaid will never take anything. But they will count assets the individual has access to regardless of who the rightful owner of those assets may be.

In most situations I encounter, a child is on an account with a parent. This is not a problem as Medicaid will assume the funds belong to the parent and the child is on the account for the parent's benefit. But that does NOT entitle the hild to half or any portion of the parent's funds. If the child can substantiate some of the funds are theirs Medicaid will allow the child to retrieve those funds. Otherwise, any funds taken by the child or used for the child's benefit will represent a "prohibited transfer" by the parent.

Joe Whitehouse, Medicaid Consultant, Louisville, KY.