• You may divest some assets to qualify for medical assistance by buying independent nursing care resources.elderly women image by leafy from Fotolia.com
  
  Medicaid provides medical assistance including nursing home care to all qualifying seniors in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, regardless of gross asset or income and for the indeterminate length of their stay. However to qualify for state-funded medical assistance, the state will evaluate your assets and you may have to forfeit some of your assets to cover the cost of the program. The Commonwealth's definition of an asset is any item that can be turned into cash. Assets will always include retirement accounts, savings accounts, stocks, and bonds. Realize that the Commonwealth will ultimately determine your financial eligibility for medical assistance and they may not accept certain items as assets.
  
  

Asset Requirement

• You must meet the income and asset requirements to be eligible for medical assistance coverage of nursing home care. In general, your monthly income has to be less than the average monthly cost of nursing home care, which fluctuates from year to year. As of 2010, if your monthly income is less than $2,000 you may retain $8,000 in assets. If your income is above $2,000, you may only keep $2,400 worth of your assets. The end result is that you must sell your surplus assets and use the funds to subsidize your nursing home stay. You may sell assets to qualify for medical assistance by buying independent nursing care resources.
  
  

Exempt Assets

• The state will not count many things towards the medical assistance asset requirement which you may keep. Examples of exempt assets are: your house (if it is your permanent residence and it is valued less than $500,000), household goods, furnishing, jewelry, clothing, personal affects, your car or motor vehicle, any prepaid funeral arrangements and life insurance policies that total more than a $1,500 face value.
  
  

Houses

• The Pennsylvania division of Medicaid anticipates your home may be a sensitive asset to assess due to sentimental reasons or if you are the guardian for children. Accordingly the Commonwealth excludes you home as an asset, regardless of value if it is the place of residence of a child under the age of 21 or a disabled person of any age. Note however that if you decide to sell your home, the money from the sale will be counted as an asset unless you use the money from the sale to purchase another home.
  
  

Penalties

• To curb the burden on the state associated with the rising cost of long-term care and to reinforce the program's original intention of providing nursing care to low income residents, penalties are in place to discourage you from giving away your assets to qualify for medical assistance. The Commonwealth reviews transfers of your assets you authorized for the last five yeas, and will determine independently whether you are ineligible. A time period of ineligibility is calculated in monthly increments by dividing the amount transferred by the monthly cost of nursing care (on average $7,000).