"Staggered gifting" is still allowed under California Medi-Cal law. This state of the law allows an individual to give assets to family member or friends and not cause a period of ineligibility for Medi-Cal to pay for long term care in a nursing home.
The key is the "average private pay rate" in a nursing home in California. Divided the gift by the APPR and that gives you the period Presently one rounds down. Hence a gift of under the APPR in 2015 of under $8,092 causes a fraction under one. Rounded down gets us to zero. Hence, no period of ineligibility under California law.
The APPR for 2016 should come out in late March 2016. Go to canhr.org to discover it. Found at http://www.canhr.org/factsheets/medi-cal_fs/html/fs_medcal_limits.htm
By Kevin Staker
