Welcome to the New Jersey Medicaid Pitfalls Blog. It is my intention to provide accurate information to Medical providers and patients regarding Medicaid eligibility in long term care facilities.

One theme that I want to begin with is how to think about Medicaid eligibility. Medicaid is a public benefit program. The basic rules are made by the Federal Government but States actually administer the Medicaid programs.

Unfortunately many people apply common sense thinking to the Medicaid realm. THIS IS AN ERROR. You cannot use common sense when trying to understand Medicaid. For example: According to the State of New Jersey when a parent pays a child's mortgage, that is a gift which results in a Medicaid penalty. If, on the other hand, a child pays for his or her parent's nursing home care, that is not a gift that reduces the penalty from the original gift from the parent.

The next several blog entries will deal with what are actually gifts for Medicaid purposes.