Why would you keep receipts for items purchased for NH resident or their home?

Any money spent on your mother's behalf must be accounted for, and yes if it's a legitimate expense it can be met by her through her allowance or from the ultimate sale of her assets; but it's got to be wholly and exclusively for her, and it's got to be properly documented.

Meticulous records of assets in and assets out should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS be kept by a power of attorney. This is a legal necessity. At any moment Medicaid can ask for proof of expenditures and assets. So yes, absolutely. All receipts go to the POA on a regular monthly basis so they can be recorded in full. POA has legal fiduciary obligation to be able to speak to every penny spent as regards to people in their financial care.

Nope, medicaid doesn’t reimburse for those expenses. Just ask your brother why he made that requests. It’s for sure not because Medicaid is going to reimburse you. Where is the money coming from? Your wallet or moms? If you are using your own money, the request could be because you will be reimbursed by moms estate one day (if the estate has the funds). If its moms money than your brother has to account for where moms money goes. She’s only allowed $2k in the bank and really can’t spend her own money on the house anymore. When he re-certifies moms Medicaid eligibility, he has to be able to explain where moms money went if Medicaid questions it. If it’s moms money & he’s taking care of her tax return assuming she files, then some of those expenses could be tax deductible and he will need receipts. But if you are spending your own money then it doesn’t actually have to be accounted for, it’s not a tax deduction on moms taxes and it doesn’t affect her Medicaid eligibility.

Your mom still has a home, right? She’s divorced so your dad is not an owner or living at the home, right? It’s vacant? If this is the situation and as mom has a required copay of basically almost all her income to the NH, someone else in your family needs to pay all her property costs, like taxes, insurance, maintenance, etc. Some states (TX) allow for legitimate property costs to be deducted from the LTC Medicaid tally that the state is paying for your moms care. Like taxes, insurance and normal maintenance but not a mortgage payment or renovations. But you have to have documentation on all & in detail to be ready to file with MERP. Could this possibly be why your brother wants these receipts kept?

Clothing, toiletries, etc. are things ime that family just buy for their elder out of a sense of family duty without expectations. The personal needs allowance ($60) for my mom really just covered her beauty shoppe visits and some snacks. All clothing, shoes, magazines, etc, we just bought. Nobody expected to ever be repaid for these items.

Out of curiosity, was there a family discussion & defined agreement on dealing with your moms house before she went into the NH & applied for Medicaid? If not, I’d suggest that you have one before it goes into months of property costs and then family / heirs become aware that establishing the exemptions &/or exclusions to estate recovery might be way way more difficult than they ever thought or that it’s just not feasible to front property costs on her home for possibly years & beyond the grave.

Just read ur response to Igloo. Is Medicaid aware that your sister has moved her family in? As a disabled child you are allowed to remain in the home. But your sister may not be after the fact, meaning after Mom was placed on Medicaid. And if Medicaid allows it, they may want ur sister to pay rent and that rent goes towards Moms care. This is a problem I was faced with when my disabled nephew had been living with Mom. The first caseworker we had said he was not a disabled child. Disabled grandchildren didn't count. They said he would have to pay rent based on HUD criteria. Which on a 4 bedroom house would have been $1600. He brought in a $1000 at the time. I hired a lawyer because of what #1 caseworker told me. The caseworker we got didn't care. All he wanted was the Reality paperwork saying the house was up for sale. So my nephew stayed their until I could get him set up in his own apt.

Got to echo what JoAnn posted..... Medicaid regulations require they are notified as to any substantive changes to assets of Medicaid recipient. A whole family moving in is a substantive change. You’re ok as you already lived there plus your disabled & likely were a caregiver in years prior (this could be very important later on, more below)

Medicaid is going to want FMV rent from your sibling paid to owner, who is your mom. If FMV $1600 then that $ is added to her SS income, & $ combined could take mom over monthly income limit for LTC Medicaid. Income max tends to be $2100 range for most states for single applicant. Rent is reportable income for IRS as well. Plus could be city regulations/ reporting on rentals. All this is being ignored, isn’t it? This is a whole problem into itself.....

Then you get into Dad paying property costs aspects of the in-moms-name house. mortgage, right? So dad is essentially paying mortgage on a property that he does NOT own and may not ever own. And paying all various property costs, like taxes, maintenance, etc as well, right? Is he expecting to be reimbursed or acquire the place? If so, he needs to be made aware of MERP aka estate recovery requirements of Medicaid. All of y’all need to realize that every day mom is in the NH, the state is paying her room and board costs, & the state is required to attempt a recovery on all those costs from your mom’s estate via MERP. That house (actually it’s more its equity as still has a mortgage) becomes an asset of moms after death estate. Unless all moms heirs have exemptions or exclusions to MERP, &/or have other legal entities for the property that can be used to deal with MERP, there's going to be a lien placed on the property by the state for how most states administer Medicaid. Nobody is going to be able to transfer how it’s titled until BOTH mortgage company AND MERP is dealt with in some way. If it’s 150K yr paid by Medicaid to NH & Average NH stay is 2.5 years = 375K lien heirs need to resolve.
If there are 3 heirs as per moms will but only 1 of the 3 have exemption (like you as you would be a disabled heir & maybe caregiver exemption) to MERP, the other 2 would have thier 2/3 share ($250 k) that would need to be worked out with MERP to transfer the property.

If elder flat wants to keep old homestead & go onto LTC Medicaid, it can be done. Medicaid allows it to be lifetime exempt asset. But family needs to have the wallet & sense of humor to deal w house & ok on risk that might not go as planned. & do all this for possibly year$.

Add to this, mortgage still needs to be paid off & have insurance (HO, wind, flood) placed as required by mortgage terms. Personally, I think having a mortgage is a deal breaker for keeping it, too co$tly.

Mortgage co will call in the loan once owner becomes deceased, which means paid off within couple of mos or goes into foreclosure. Mortgage co are not casual on outstanding mortgage. Is your dad ok on paying all this got possibly years and running risk that things may not turn out as planned?

Medicaid ime unfortunately tends to gloss over MERP aspects of Medicaid, just like for copay of monthly income requirements.
What seems to happen is after 6-12 mos, family flat stop doing or Paying stuff.... house ends up getting sold; AND AS it is moms house, all $ is hers after mortgage paid off; and she becomes private pay at NH; family cannot b reimbursed as that would be “gifting” by mom and not allowed by Medicaid. Family is out all $ they paid.
So if u do this, imo, all heirs have to be in this for long run & pay all costs & do whatever legal needed AND be ok on risk.

good luck w your family & don’t let them take advantage of you.