More on New Jersey’s Transfer of Home to Caregiver Child Exception

The child caregiver exception to Medicaid transfer rules is one that many people focus on in an effort to protect the home and transfer it from parent to child.  It is also one that New Jersey Medicaid scrutinizes very closely.  New Jersey has rejected this exception where the child had a full time job and was therefore unavailable to assist the parent most of the day.  The care provided by the child must be such that if he/she was not providing it the parent would have needed nursing home level care.  Leaving the parent unattended for long stretches of the day while the child is working suggests that a 24/7 level of care is not necessary and so would not count towards the 2 year requirement.

Another issue is documentation of the need for care.  Typically, the child will come upon this exception as a solution in retrospect.  New Jersey Medicaid will require some verifiable proof that Mom needed nursing home level care at the beginning of the 2 year time frame.  We tell our elder law clients the best way to do that is with a doctor’s examination and documentation for that purpose.