New Hampshire Medicaid Look-Back Calculator

New Hampshire's look-back and penalty divisor

New Hampshire divides counted transfers by $403.51 per day (NH DHHS BEAS Nursing Facility Rates Appendix A (PR 25-14, rates as of July 1, 2025), effective July 1, 2025) and looks back 60 months.

• The look-back for all asset transfers is still up to 60 months. (NH DHHS SR 24-03 (eff. 2024-01-01))
• Transfers of other valuable assets, such as a time share, life estate, boat or RV, made within 60 months of applying are reviewed. (NH MAM 415.03)
• The tiered record checks took effect January 1, 2024, under a 2023 law (HB 2) that changed how far back the department reviews records; the look-back itself stays up to 60 months. (NH DHHS SR 24-03 (eff. 2024-01-01))
• If questionable resources cannot be verified before the interview, records are checked back the full 60 months. (NH DHHS SR 24-03 (eff. 2024-01-01))
• The penalty runs continuously from its start, whether or not the person stays institutionalized. (NH MAM 415.25)
• New Hampshire converts the daily rate to a monthly rate by multiplying by 30.42. (NH DHHS BEAS Medicaid Manual Appendix A, PR 25-14 (7/2025))
• Leftover value is divided by a daily rate (the monthly rate divided by 30.42) to set the partial-month penalty. (NH MAM 415.25)
• Transfer penalties apply to people requesting nursing facility care or home and community-based care. (NH MAM 415.23)
• People who have received DHHS assistance for 3 or more years only need to give current information, because their assets were verified before. (NH MAM 415.03)
• Applicants in neither of the other two tiers have records checked back 36 months; the search through months 37 to 60 is skipped only if nothing questionable is found. (NH MAM 415.03)
• People with stocks, bonds, CDs, an annuity, a trust, an IRA or other retirement account, or who transferred real property have records checked back the full 60 months. (NH MAM 415.03)

Less certain: The New Hampshire rate is from a July 2025 archive copy; a newer rate may exist.

How the look-back and the penalty work

When someone applies for Medicaid to pay for nursing-home care, the state looks back at gifts and transfers made for less than fair value. Federal law sets the look-back at 60 months before the application for transfers made since February 8, 2006, and California runs its own 30-month rule.

Every counted transfer in the window is added together and divided by the state's penalty divisor, the average monthly cost of private-pay nursing-facility care that the state publishes. The result is the number of months Medicaid will not pay for long-term care. Federal law says a state may not round a partial month down, and states handle the leftover fraction in different ways: as part of a month, as whole days, or as a one-time dollar charge. California, which runs its own rules, does not impose a partial month.

The penalty does not start on the date of the gift. It starts only when the person has applied, would otherwise be eligible, and is receiving long-term care, which is why a gift made years earlier can still delay coverage at the worst moment. California is the exception: under DHCS guidance a Medi-Cal period of ineligibility runs from the month of the transfer.

Transfers federal law does not penalize

Some transfers are exempt under 42 U.S.C. 1396p(c)(2): anything to a spouse or for the spouse's sole benefit; transfers to a blind or disabled child or a trust solely for that child's benefit; a trust solely for a disabled person under 65; and the home, when it goes to a spouse, a child under 21, a blind or disabled child, a sibling with an equity interest who lived there for a year, or a child who lived there for two years and provided care that kept the parent at home.

A penalty can also be avoided if the state accepts that the transfer was for fair value or made only for a reason other than qualifying for Medicaid, if all transferred assets are returned, or if the state grants an undue hardship waiver.