Medicaid's 5-year look back period in Florida.

Attorney Tom Olsen: We're going to call it a skilled nursing facility because that's what it is, but the average layman out there, they refer to it as a nursing home. Folks, as you're out there talking to your friends and family and neighbors and co-workers and you hear these words, "Oh, mom is going into a nursing home, $10,000 to $12,000 a month. Everything she ever worked for down the drain. Nothing we can do about it," we want to let that here at the Olson Law Group, we have the ability, Medicaid-compliant tools to protect all of your assets from the cost of a nursing home. Most people out there, Robert, they're familiar with the Medicaid five-year look-back period, but tell the listeners about that.

Attorney Robert Hidock: There is a five-year look-back period. It usually applies to gifting, but when we're doing asset protection, it's usually actually done, Tom, when the application is going in because our tools are Medicaid-compliant and they bypass that five-year look-back period. I have a story to tell you. Lindy and I met with a couple out of Lake County and they wanted to protect assets for his sister. We had a very good consult and we were going to protect roughly around $350,000.

Everything was fine, and then all of a sudden, we get a call from his brother who lives in New Jersey and he told us that we were breaking the law, that we couldn't do it. That's because, in New Jersey, they don't have personal services contracts, but here we do. As I've talked about before, personal service contracts allows you to pay your caregiver in advance for care. They're not giving money away, you're giving but you're getting care in return, and that's perfectly fine for Medicaid because you're receiving something for the money.

Tom: Robert, the lesson to be learned there is that Medicaid is a combination of both state and federal law. What's true here in the state of Florida is not necessarily true in the state of New Jersey.

Robert: Exactly.

Tom: Just out of curiosity, to finish that story, the brother in New Jersey, once you explained to him what the Florida law was, did he say, "Oh, great, glad to hear that."?

Robert: He did. Very much so.

Tom: Awesome. Protecting $350,000 of mom's money, it's a win-win for them and I'm sure they appreciated those services.

[00:02:24] [END OF AUDIO]