Changes to the New York State Budget

We hope you and your families well and safe. We want to inform you of recent changes to the New York State budget which may significantly impact your need for home care services paid for by Medicaid (also known as Community Medicaid).

New York State has passed the 2020 State budget Bill which includes radical changes to the statewide community Medicaid program covering home and community-based services:

• Starting October 1, 2020, all new applications for Medicaid community-based (home care) benefits will be subject to a 30-month (two-and-half-year) lookback period when analyzing an applicant’s resources and income. This requirement is a drastic change from the prior one-month lookback period.
• If transfers are found within 30-months (two-and-half-years) prior to the date of submission, a transfer penalty or waiting period will be applied before services can be granted to that individual.

The anticipated effective date of this new rule is October 1, 2020; therefore, all Medicaid home care applications filed after October 1 will have to provide 30-months of financial statements for all resources.

If you are considering applying for home care services in the near future, we strongly recommend that you contact us as soon as possible to discuss preparation of your Medicaid home care application so that it can be filed before October 1, 2020, and avoid the new lookback requirements and possible penalty period.

This change will likely cause the application process to take longer, and we do not want you to be delayed in your receiving much-needed benefits as past transfers will now affect your eligibility. Please note that the lookback period for Medicaid nursing home benefits remains unchanged at a full 60 months (5 years).