Elder Law question and real estate

[Scott Harper]

A friend has a mother that has gone to assisted living. She has retirement income of $3000.00 a month. Medicare is paying now but eventually may need Medicaid to pay. 

He has a home valued at 200k and her husband passed a few years ago. 

My friend has consulted attorneys and received conflicting answers. 

If he rents her house does all money (approx 1500.00 month)have to go into a trust to protect it so she can still qualify for Medicaid?

Can he sell the house and put money into a trust to protect it from the five year look back for Medicaid?

Has anyone had experience with this? 

What would you suggest (your personal opinion)

Or an attorney who may know.

[Michael Lee]

Hello and welcome to this site with your question for an opinion answer Scott!  I am not an Attorney and this is my thinking.  Can she not rent out the home and "pay" your friend a large "manager fee but is saving some or all of it so Medicaid will not see and he quietly pays her back all or some of those "management fees" after Medicaide people check her capability to get help from them? One thing that I have found out that because I live in a community state (Texas) I was turned down on getting any financial aid from the SSA because in their opinion that my wife made too much money and so they turned me down even though I have been paying them taxes for years   I was 54 then and had been working since I was 14.  I was never told in grade school or college that it could be a problem.    Good luck to you!