The Medicaid five-year lookback period is a rule that requires Georgia Medicaid to review all asset transfers you made in the five years before your application for nursing home benefits. If you transferred assets — to family members, into certain trusts, or otherwise gave them away — during that window, Medicaid can penalize you and delay your benefits.
Understanding this rule is essential for anyone doing Medicaid planning in Georgia.
How the Lookback Period Works
When you apply for Georgia Medicaid nursing home benefits, the state looks at five years of financial records — bank statements, tax returns, deeds, and transfer records. The question it is asking: did you give away assets to make yourself look poorer than you are?
Any transfer of assets for less than fair market value during the lookback period can trigger a penalty. This includes:
- Gifting money to children or grandchildren
- Transferring your home to a family member for $1
- Creating an irrevocable trust and funding it
- Adding a family member to a bank account as a joint owner and then removing yourself
What the Penalty Looks Like
The penalty is not a fine — it is a period of ineligibility. Georgia calculates the penalty by dividing the value of transferred assets by the average monthly cost of nursing home care in the state.
Example: If you transferred $100,000 within the lookback period, and Georgia’s average nursing home cost is approximately $8,820 per month, your penalty period would be roughly 11 months. During those 11 months, Medicaid will not pay for your care even if you are otherwise eligible.
The penalty starts running when you are in a nursing home, have spent down to Medicaid eligibility, and have applied — not at the time of the transfer. This can leave families in a very difficult position: in a nursing home, out of money, and waiting out a penalty period with no coverage.
What Is Not Penalized
Not all transfers trigger a penalty. Exceptions include:
- Transfers to a spouse
- Transfers to a blind or disabled child
- Transfers into certain special needs trusts
- Transfers of the home to a caregiver child who lived with you for at least two years before your nursing home admission
Why This Means You Must Plan Early
The lookback period is the primary reason Medicaid planning must start years before you need care. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust you create today starts a five-year clock. The assets transferred into it are not protected until that clock runs out.
If you create a MAPT at 66 and do not need nursing home care until 72, you are fully protected. If you create it at 70 and need care at 72, you have two years of protection — not five — and the unprotected portion may be subject to the penalty.
Common Mistakes Families Make
Mistake 1: Giving money to children informally. Annual gift tax exclusions ($18,000 per recipient in 2026) apply to IRS rules — not Medicaid rules. Medicaid does not care about gift tax exclusions. Every dollar given away within the lookback period is potentially penalized.
Mistake 2: Waiting until a crisis. The most common Medicaid planning mistake is waiting until a parent is in a nursing home or just received a diagnosis. At that point, the lookback period makes most strategies unavailable.
Mistake 3: Assuming a revocable trust protects assets. A revocable living trust is great for avoiding probate but does nothing for Medicaid. Because you can take assets back from a revocable trust, Medicaid counts them as yours.
What You Can Do Now
If you are in your 60s or early 70s and thinking about long-term care, the window is open. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust created now can protect significant assets by the time you might need nursing home care.
The Hive Law works with Georgia families on Medicaid planning and elder law. If you want to understand your exposure and your options, start with a Family Protection Audit — a 60-minute conversation with Melissa Breyer that gives you a clear picture of where you stand.