---
title: "South Carolina Medicaid Look-Back Period | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/south-carolina/medicaid-look-back-period/
description: "South Carolina reviews five years of transfers and uses its current private-pay rate when calculating a penalty."
last_updated: 2026-10-20
author: George A. Mellendorf, CLTC, LTCP (Central States Insurance Services, Inc.)
publisher: Funding LTC Marketplace
note: Educational content; not legal, tax or financial advice. Markdown copy of the HTML page at the URL above.
---
South Carolina · Look-Back & Penalties

# South Carolina Medicaid Look-Back Period

Last updated 2026-10-20

**Quick answer:** South Carolina Medicaid reviews uncompensated transfers made in the 60 months before a long-term care application. Penalties are calculated using the state's current average private-pay nursing facility cost.

South Carolina applies a 60-month look-back to uncompensated transfers, as spelled out in SCDHHS's published long-term-care manual. In practical terms, that means the agency examines the five years leading up to the relevant application period for long-term-care Medicaid. And this review isn't limited to transactions labeled as gifts — a sale, a deed transfer, money moved into a trust, or virtually any other transaction can require the applicant to prove fair value was exchanged.

The core question the state asks is simple even if the paperwork isn't: did the applicant receive fair market value? That's why families should keep closing statements, appraisals, cancelled checks, contracts, invoices, care agreements, bank statements, and payment records well before filing an application. A verbal explanation offered after the fact is a much weaker position than contemporaneous documentation.

When a penalty period does result from an uncompensated transfer, the manual directs the agency to calculate it using the state's current average private-pay nursing-facility cost.

## South Carolina figures

- Transfer look-back review: 60 months

## Sources and official resources

- [SCDHHS: Nursing Facilities](https://www.scdhhs.gov/resources/programs-and-initiatives/long-term-living/nursing-facilities)
- [U.S. Code: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p (liens, estate recovery, transfers of assets, Partnership disregard)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396p)

Rules and figures change. Confirm current details with the agency before you act.

[← Back to the full South Carolina guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/south-carolina/)