Will Medicaid take Mom's house from my brother?

Her house had a value at the time of the Quit Claim. Usually the last tax assessor statement value or a valid appraisal done by a registered & licensed appraiser. That value will be considered "gifting" and place a transfer penalty on mom's Medicaid eligibility.

The penalty is derived roughly a formula based on your states medicaid daily reimbursement rate for room & board. So $ 100,000 home with state rate of $ 175 a day, means 571 days of ineligibility of NH Medicaid for your mom.

Assessor records dovetail with state database and the QCD will show up eventually. Mom will be found to be ineligible for Medicaid to pay for the NH even though she is qualified and "at need" now for income. Medicaid will sent mom, whomever is her DPOA or contact as indicated in the Medicaid application AND the NH a notification of her ineligibility. The NH will fully expect to be paid (as Medicaid will not be paying them) and for family the choices are limited….
- someone signs off a private pay contract at the NH along with funds to pay the past due;
- someone in the family moves mom into their home (the NH debt still is there and will be turned over to collections);
- family walk on mom and let mom become a ward of the state with a court appointed non-family guardian;
- brother signs his own QCD of the home back to mom and the house then become an exempt asset for her and allowed by medicaid (there have been several on this site who have had to do the do-over of a QCD, it is the simplest way out of this mess) and either family pay all house costs but do not own it & deal with estate recovery & probate later on OR sell it for mom;
- Brother cancels the QCD and buys the house at FMV or assessor value from mom and mom does a spend down of the $ till she qualifies for Medicaid.

Regarding keeping the house, although having them continue to keep their home & the fact that Medicaid allows for the home to be an exempt asset sounds just fabulous, it poses problems. Mom's income must be paid to the NH as her co-pay or SOC (share of cost). Mom realistically will have no-none-nada of $ anymore to pay on anything on her home anymore. Someone will have to pay all costs on the property and from day 1 of Nh Medicaid approval till she dies and then through the MERP &/or or probate process. Upon death it then becomes an asset of her estate. Medicaid is required to attempt a recovery of all costs paid by Medicaid from her estate via MERP. If family ignores MERP or doesn't open probate, the Medicaid lein on the properly will be placed and caused a "cloud" on the title which means it cannot be sold or any equity lending done on the property will the cloud is lifted by payment to Medicaid.

Eventually a match up on assets will be done and the transfer will surface. If you signed off on the admissions documents for mom (& not your brother), the NH will come after you to pay mom's debt. A NH can run from 5k to 15K a month, the debt could be quite large within a year or so. The Medicaid application probably has some wording on accuracy of information provided with fines if not or APS investigation if things done fraudulently.

As Igloo explained, no, Medicaid will not take the house from Brother or place a lien on it. It was Mother's asset, Mother gave it away, and Mother is applying for Medicaid. The penalty will be on Mother, not Brother. This transaction can make her ineligible for Medicaid for a considerable period of time.

Medicaid has no authority over Brother.

Yes, Medicaid will view the Quit-claim to your brother as a "gift". Thus Medicaid can place a lien on the house.

There are exceptions and you or your brother would need to check with the State Medicaid office. Now, if your brother was providing around the clock care of his Mother for at least two years which kept his Mom out of a nursing home, and has proof of this claim, then Medicaid might not place a lien on the house. The proof would be that he was doing the work of 3 full-time caregivers each day, with doctor written requirements that his Mom needed this care.

I agree with comments above, but I would also explore the legal implications of the Quit claim deed. That term may have special meaning in your state. I might inquire how that differs from a regular deed. An attorney would be able to explore what if any significance there is. Did an attorney prepare that deed or was it done without legal advice? I would explore that as it could have implications.

Your profile states Mom is in assisted living. If that is the case and your brother provided medically necessary care for a minimum of two years Medicaid will penalize your mom for gifting house to your brother. But, if she is in a nursing home and brother provided medically necessary care then there may be an exemption for the penalties of Medicaid. The facility according to Medicaid regs must be a nursing home, which in my opinion should be changed to also exempt memory care.