If a Medi-Cal applicant’s spouse transfers assets, will that result in any period of ineligibility for nursing home care?
Generally, California will not impose any period of ineligibility for nursing home care on the applicant if his or her spouse previously transferred assets. The exception is if the asset/resource transferred originally belonged to the applicant. In that case, a disqualification period will be imposed if the spouse received the assets from the applicant before the applicant went into the nursing home and then transferred them to a third party. This is because the Medi-Cal rules differ for a “community spouse” and an “individual spouse”. If the spouses wait until one of them goes into the nursing home, the spouse will be a “community spouse”. Then a transfer of property from the spouse in the nursing home to the community spouse that is then transferred to a third party, does not trigger any period of ineligibility