Section 17b-261a - Transfer or assignment of assets resulting in the imposition of a penalty period. Return or partial return of asset. Regulations(a) Any transfer or assignment of assets resulting in the imposition of a penalty period shall be presumed to be made with the intent, on the part of the transferor or the transferee, to enable the transferor to obtain or maintain eligibility for medical assistance. This presumption may be rebutted only by clear and convincing evidence that the transferor's eligibility or potential eligibility for medical assistance was not a basis for the transfer or assignment.(b) Any transfer or assignment of assets resulting in the establishment or imposition of a penalty period shall create a debt, as defined in section 36a-645, that shall be due and owing by the transferor or transferee to the Department of Social Services in an amount equal to the amount of the medical assistance provided to or on behalf of the transferor on or after the date of the transfer of assets, but said amount shall not exceed the fair market value of the assets at the time of transfer. The Commissioner of Social Services, the Commissioner of Administrative Services and the Attorney General shall have the power or authority to seek administrative, legal or equitable relief as provided by other statutes or by common law.(c) The Commissioner of Social Services may waive the imposition of a penalty period when the transferor (1) in accordance with the provisions of section 3025.25 of the department's Uniform Policy Manual, suffers from dementia at the time of application for medical assistance and cannot explain transfers that would otherwise result in the imposition of a penalty period; or (2) suffered from dementia at the time of the transfer; or (3) was exploited into making such a transfer due to dementia. Waiver of the imposition of a penalty period does not prohibit the establishment of a debt in accordance with subsection (b) of this section.(d)(1) For purposes of this subsection, an "institutionalized individual" means an individual who has applied for or is receiving (A) services from a long-term care facility, (B) services from a medical institution that are equivalent to those services provided in a long-term care facility, or (C) home and community-based services under a Medicaid waiver.(2) An institutionalized individual shall not be penalized for the transfer of an asset if the entire amount of the transferred asset is returned to the institutionalized individual. A transferee may return any portion of a transferred asset to the transferor. If any transferred asset is returned to the transferor, the Department of Social Services shall adjust the penalty period to the extent permitted by federal law, provided the ending date of the penalty period as originally determined by the department shall not change. The department shall consider the entire amount of the returned asset to be available to the transferor only from the date of return of the transferred asset, and shall not determine the transferor to be ineligible in the month the transferred asset is returned, provided the transferor reduced the returned asset in accordance with federal law.(3) If there are multiple transfers of assets to the same or different transferees, a return of anything less than the total amount of the transferred assets from all of the separate transferees shall not constitute a return of the entire amount of the transferred assets and shall represent a partial return.(4) The conveyance and subsequent return of an asset for the purpose of shifting costs to the Medicaid program shall be regarded as a trust-like device. Such asset shall be considered available for the purpose of determining Medicaid eligibility. The conveyance and subsequent return of an asset made exclusively for a purpose other than to qualify for the payment of long-term care services under the Medicaid program shall not be regarded as a trust-like device.(e) The Commissioner of Social Services, pursuant to section 17b-10, shall implement the policies and procedures necessary to carry out the provisions of this section while in the process of adopting such policies and procedures in regulation form, provided notice of intent to adopt regulations is published in the Connecticut Law Journal not later than twenty days after implementation. Such policies and procedures shall be valid until the time final regulations are effective.Conn. Gen. Stat. § 17b-261a
( June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-2, S. 4, 69; June Sp. Sess. P.A. 01-9, S. 129, 131; June 30 Sp. Sess. P.A. 03-3, S. 62; P.A. 04-16, S. 7; P.A. 05-209, S. 4; 05-280, S. 40; P.A. 11-44, S. 104; P.A. 13-218, S. 1.)