Wyoming Medicaid Look-Back Period

Last updated: August 21, 2026 Jurisdiction: Wyoming

Wyoming applies a five-year transfer review

Wyoming law applies a 60-month look-back when an institutionalized person or that person’s spouse disposed of an asset or interest for less than fair market value. The statute applies the review to transfers within 60 months before, or any time after, the first date on which the person has both applied for medical assistance and been institutionalized. The transfer inquiry is not a tax: it can create a period in which Medicaid will not pay for long-term-care services even if the person otherwise meets eligibility requirements (Wyoming Statutes, W.S. 42-2-402).

Wyoming’s Chapter 18 rule presumes a below-fair-market-value transfer was made to qualify for Medicaid unless convincing evidence shows the transfer was exclusively for another reason. That presumption makes documentation important. An appraisal, purchase agreement, evidence of services actually provided, payment records, and a clear timeline may matter more than a family’s informal description of the transaction (Wyoming Medicaid Chapter 18 transfer rule).

The divisor is the private-pay cost on the application date

Wyoming’s statute states the calculation: the cumulative uncompensated value of transfers in the 60-month period is divided by the average monthly cost to a private patient for nursing-facility services on the application date. The result determines months of long-term-care ineligibility, subject to the statute’s start-date rule. Unlike states that publish a clearly labeled annual statewide divisor, the official Wyoming sources located for this page did not provide a verified 2026 dollar divisor. The current rate should be requested from the Long Term Care Eligibility Unit rather than guessed (Wyoming Statutes, W.S. 42-2-402; Wyoming Long Term Care Eligibility Unit).

The penalty begins on the later of the statutory transfer-date alternative or the date the person is eligible for Medicaid and would otherwise be receiving institutional-level care but for the penalty. This timing rule is why a simple division example is not a reliable filing strategy. A person may have several transfers, a spouse, a changing care setting, or an application that is not otherwise approvable when first submitted (Wyoming penalty start-date rule).

Do not treat deeds and trusts as labels

Wyoming permits a transfer-on-death deed, but the deed statute separately gives the Department notice and lien authority; it should not be treated as a settled way to eliminate a look-back or recovery issue. Chapter 18 also has separate rules for income trusts, pooled trusts, returned transferred resources, and undue hardship. A transfer can have a different result depending on whether it is an outright gift, a sale at documented fair value, a trust funding event, or a deed transaction (Wyoming TOD-deed statute; Wyoming Chapter 18 trusts and returned-resources rules).

Wyoming transfer rule: review 60 months, preserve proof of value, and obtain the current application-date average private-pay nursing-facility rate before estimating a penalty (Wyoming Statutes, W.S. 42-2-402).

For related concepts, see Crisis Planning / Half-a-Loaf. A Wyoming elder-law attorney should review a proposed gift, home transfer, payment to a relative, or trust funding before it occurs.

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Wyoming applies a five-year transfer review

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