Montana Medicaid Look-Back Period

Quick answer: Montana Medicaid reviews transfers made in the 60 months before an application for institutional or HCBS waiver services, and transfers after eligibility count too. The first long-term care application sets a single look-back period.

Montana enforces a five-year look-back on asset transfers before Medicaid will pay for institutional or home-and-community-based waiver services. Under DPHHS policy, a disqualifying transfer is any transfer for less than fair market value made during that 60-month window — or even after eligibility has already been granted — unless a specific exemption applies.

The clock starts running from the date an institutionalized or waiver applicant requests Medicaid coverage, and it covers more than outright gifts: trust payments made to or for someone other than the Medicaid applicant count too. Importantly, DPHHS treats the first qualifying long-term-care application as establishing a single look-back period, regardless of how many later applications or hospitalizations follow.