California stopped ignoring family gifts the day its Medi-Cal asset test returned on Jan. 1, 2026. A nonexempt asset given away on or after that date can delay nursing-home coverage later, and the window a county reviews has been stretching month by month toward a full 30 months in July 2028.
A look-back that began short and lengthens every month
The state’s rules are spelled out in letter 25-18, issued Oct. 9, 2025 by Sarah Crow, Division Chief of Medi-Cal Eligibility at the Department of Health Care Services. It says that beginning July 1, 2026, the number of months reviewed “will increase by one month with each passing month.”
The letter’s table starts at six months for a July 2026 application, which reaches back to the January 2026 start date. On that schedule an October 2026 application would reach back nine months. The full 30-month review applies to long-term care applications and to members entering long-term care on or after July 1, 2028.
The department’s asset limit FAQ, last modified Oct. 8, 2026, describes the rule in its end-state terms: when someone enters a nursing home, Medi-Cal reviews assets given away in the 30 months before admission. Transfers made before Jan. 1, 2026 are not counted, and transfers on or after that date may bring a penalty.
What makes a transfer count, and what does not
Only transfers of nonexempt assets for less than fair value can trigger a period of ineligibility. The letter adds a test: a disqualifying transfer is one made while the person was over the asset limit and valued above the statewide average private pay rate for nursing facility services. Transfers of exempt assets are not penalized.
The FAQ names several that cause no loss of coverage: transfers to a spouse, transfers to a blind or disabled child, and sales for full value. The letter says a transfer is presumed to have been made to establish Medi-Cal eligibility, but the family can refute that presumption. Counties must also review every case for undue hardship before imposing a penalty.
For a family deciding whether to move a parent into a home, the working question is which transfers since Jan. 1, 2026 the county will see and which it will set aside. A parent’s own gifts, a house sold below market value or cash moved to an adult child are the ones that need a date and a value attached.
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Penalties are capped at 30 months from the transfer date. The letter works one example with a $13,000 average private pay rate, in which a $70,000 transfer produces a five-month period of ineligibility. That figure is the letter’s illustration, not the state’s current rate. The penalty applies only to coverage at the nursing-facility level of care, not to community-based Medi-Cal programs.
The $130,000 limit that drops to $21,000 on July 1, 2027
The look-back sits beside the returned asset test. The FAQ puts the limit at $130,000 for one person through June 30, 2027, plus $65,000 for each additional person in the home, up to 10 people. From July 1, 2027, it falls to $21,000 for one person and $31,000 for two, plus $1,550 for each additional person.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office describes the same drop in the final spending plan, which partially restores the limit to $21,000 for individuals and $31,000 for couples beginning July 1, 2027. The analyst’s discussion concerns In-Home Supportive Services, and it does not address the nursing-home look-back.
The department’s guidance for most people is blunt: giving away or selling assets does not help, and people who may need long-term care should spend down instead. The FAQ lists medical bills, rent or mortgage, home repairs, school and debts as examples of spending down. Some married couples and registered domestic partners can qualify for higher limits under spousal impoverishment rules.
The family home and the programs left out
A main home the person plans to return to is not counted, according to the FAQ, and neither is a home where a spouse, partner or dependent relative lives. Additional homes are counted. For a family weighing whether to keep or sell a parent’s house, that distinction decides whether the property is an asset at all.
The letter covers applicants and members of non-MAGI Medi-Cal in long-term care, and their spouses. Pickle, Disabled Adult Child and Disabled Widow/er programs are not affected, because they remain exempt from the asset test. Asset testing returned Jan. 1, 2026 after being eliminated for non-MAGI programs on Jan. 1, 2024.
The dates a family can count on
Three dates anchor the calendar. Jan. 1, 2026 marks the earliest transfer that counts. July 1, 2027 is when the single-person limit drops from $130,000 to $21,000. July 1, 2028 is when long-term care applicants face the full 30 months. Everything in between is a growing window.
The department’s Medi-Cal page is the starting point for applying, and the county human services office handles the case. The open item the sources leave is the exact month-by-month table for each date between now and 2028, which sits in the letter and which a county eligibility worker applies to a specific admission date.
Which gifts will Medi-Cal count against a parent?
A gift made this year is already on the clock, and a nursing-home admission date decides how far back the county looks. Families that move a parent first and sort out the money later can find a delay in coverage after the fact.
Protect Your Savings From Care Costs lays out what Medicare pays for nursing care and what it won’t. It also covers how the at-home spouse is protected, with the 2026 numbers, and Medicaid’s 5-year look-back before anything is given away. The look-back section explains the general Medicaid rule; California’s 30-month schedule is the one described above.
The guide runs 10 pages and ends with a care-plan worksheet that a family fills in together.
Get the care-costs guide and the family care-plan worksheet →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
