Medicaid rules require the applicant, or the applicant’s agent, to self-report the existence of all assets. Knowingly failing to report assets is a crime. Occasionally over the years, we have found financial assets that a client claimed didn’t exist. Clues would appear in a known bank account’s record of credits and debits. Skilled cross-examination would reveal the truth.
Apparently, the thought is “if I don’t tell anyone about a bank account, how will they ever know?” The old “does a tree make a sound when it falls if no one is in the woods to hear it?” philosophic question?
Well, sorry folks, because of artificial intelligence search tools and their algorithms, this little secret is no longer safe. Medicaid has employed artificial intelligence to verify an applicant’s statement of assets for years. Now, apparently, anyone can do the same to find hidden assets from their phones.
The minimum consequence for hiding assets is to be barred from qualifying for Long-Term Care Medicaid benefits for life.
There will be a day of reckoning for failure to disclose assets.
