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Medicaid Penalty Period Calculator: Gifts ÷ Your State’s Divisor, and When the Clock Starts

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Finding your state’s divisor

The divisor in your state, all 51 jurisdictions

Each row is that state’s own quick answer, excerpted from its own detail page, which cites the state’s own Medicaid manual or regulation.

StateQuick answer
AlabamaQuick answer:Alabama publishes the division and withholds the amount. Rule 560-X-25-.09(5)(b) divides the cumulative uncompensated value by the average monthly cost to a private patient for nursing facility services in the state (at the time of application) as determined by Medicaid; and that closing phrase is the whole story: the figure is set by the agency, not printed in the rule. All 17 sections of chapter 560-X-25 were read for this page and none of them states it.
AlaskaQuick answer:Alaska is the one state in this series that does not use a statewide number at all. Its manual divides by the average monthly cost to a private patient of nursing home care in the individual’s community, and where the community cannot be determined it falls back to the current swing-bed rate set by the Office of Rate Review. There is no single Alaska divisor to publish, by design.
ArizonaQuick answer:Arizona uses two private pay rates. From 10/01/2026 through 09/30/2027 it is $9,117.67 a month in Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties and $8,239.92 a month in every other county. For 10/01/2025 through 09/30/2026 the rates were $8,666.72 and $8,132.22.
ArkansasQuick answer:Arkansas publishes a MONTHLY divisor and it is $9,110.00 for transfers assessed from April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2027, up from $8,834.00 the year before. The unusual part is what the number is made of. Almost every state divides by an average private-pay charge; Arkansas divides by its own Medicaid weighted average per diem rate multiplied by 30.42. That is the rate the program pays facilities, not the rate a private resident is billed, and it is generally the lower of the two; a lower divisor produces a LONGER penalty for the same gift.
CaliforniaQuick answer:California’s 2026 figure is $14,440, published in All County Welfare Directors Letter 26-03 dated February 9, 2026. Two things set California apart from every other state in this series: the look-back is 30 months, not sixty, and no period of ineligibility is calculated at all for a transfer made between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025.
ColoradoQuick answer:Colorado does not divide by a single statewide survey figure. Its rule divides by the AVERAGE OF FOUR REGIONAL private-pay rates, and the state publishes that average as $10,814 a month effective January 1, 2026. The four regional figures sit on the same page, and their mean reproduces the published average to the cent.
ConnecticutQuick answer:Connecticut’s rule is current and its published rate table is not. UPM 3029.05 divides the total uncompensated value of the transferred assets by the average monthly cost to a private patient for LTCF services in Connecticut. The procedure that lists those monthly amounts, P-3029.30, was last transmitted on 7-1-17 and its newest row is stamped “on or after 7/1/16”; so this page reports the rule as settled and treats the current-year figure as unsettled.
DelawareQuick answer:Delaware publishes two figures every year and its manual uses them in two different places. Effective January 1, 2026 the average daily cost is $439.84 and the average monthly cost is $13,378.33. For assets transferred on or after 2/8/06, the manual’s penalty section divides by the DAILY figure and the answer comes out in days.
District of ColumbiaQuick answer:The District publishes the formula as a formula and sets the number separately. DCMR 29-9803.4 divides the total uncompensated value of all transferred resources by the average monthly cost of a private nursing facility patient in the community, and 29-9803.6 says the Department determines that cost on an annual basis, using a single standard figure for all LTCSS applicants. The figure is therefore an annual administrative determination, not a line in the regulation; all six sections of chapter 29-98 were read for this page and none of them prints it.
FloridaQuick answer:Florida divides transfers by $10,645 a month, the Transfer of Asset Divisor dated April 1, 2025 in the state’s July 2026 eligibility standards. It is higher than the $10,438 rate effective January 1, 2024, and still lower than the $10,809 rate effective August 1, 2022.
GeorgiaQuick answer:Georgia divides by $11,122.00 a month, effective 4-26, and then does something most states do not: it applies two different rules to the leftover fraction depending on when the asset moved. Under the older rule the manual says drop all fractions; under the current one it says do not.
HawaiiQuick answer:Hawaii states the division precisely and prints no amount. HAR § 17-1725.1-57(a) divides the total uncompensated value of the transferred asset by the statewide average monthly cost of nursing facility services assessed to a private patient. The divisor is MONTHLY, and Hawaii is one of the few states whose rule says in terms that a partial month is not forgiven: a penalty period that comes out to part of a month “shall not be rounded down or disregarded.”
IdahoQuick answer:Idaho’s rule states the arithmetic and prints no number. Under IDAPA 16.03.05 the period of restricted coverage is the number of months computed by dividing the net uncompensated value of the transferred asset by the statewide average cost of nursing facility services to private patients. Idaho also does something most states do not: the penalty is restricted Medicaid coverage, not a loss of Medicaid – except for waiver and personal-care recipients, for whom the rule says the penalty is ineligibility.
IllinoisQuick answer:Illinois is the state where there is no single number to look up. For nursing home cases the state’s policy manual tells caseworkers to use “the private rate at the facility where the person lives” – so two Illinois families who gave away the same amount can end up with different penalty lengths.
IndianaQuick answer:Indiana divides transfers by $8,027 a month for applications filed on or after July 1, 2026. Applications filed from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026 use $7,651.
IowaQuick answer:For applications from July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027, Iowa uses $9,838.96 a month, or $323.65 a day, as the statewide average nursing facility cost.
KansasQuick answer:Kansas uses a DAILY divisor, and for a newly determined penalty beginning on or after July 1, 2026 it is $308.25 per day. KDHE Policy Memo 2026-05-01, dated May 21, 2026, raised it from $287.14 per day, and the older Transfer of Property worksheet this page once relied on, whose last row is $207.70 effective July 1, 2018, is out of date.
KentuckyQuick answer:Kentucky never uses the word divisor. Its regulations define a transferred resource factor; an amount equal to the average monthly cost of nursing facility services in the state and of private pay rates for semi-private rooms at all Medicaid-participating facilities, adjusted annually. 907 KAR 20:030 divides the uncompensated value of what was transferred by that factor, and prints no amount anywhere in the rule.
LouisianaQuick answer:For applications received on or after September 1, 2024, Louisiana uses $7,200 a month, stated in the manual as $236.71 per day.
MaineQuick answer:Maine divides uncompensated transfers by $13,339 a month. The state builds that figure from nursing facilities’ own reported daily rates and multiplies the average by 31, and it is redetermined every June 1.
MarylandQuick answer:Maryland divides uncompensated transfers by Schedule MA-6, which publishes $12,501 a month and $411 a day, both effective 7/1/25. The schedule’s own note says those figures are based on the Genworth 2024 Cost of Care Survey, December 2024.
MassachusettsQuick answer:MassHealth divides by a DAILY figure, and it is $450.00 for applications received on or after November 1, 2025, up from $441.00. Which of the two applies is not decided by when the gift was made or when the penalty is calculated; EOM 25-16 is explicit that it turns on the date MassHealth received the application or the eligibility review form. A file received on October 31 is worked at $441.00; the same file received a day later is worked at $450.00.
MichiganQuick answer:Michigan divides the uncompensated value of a divestment by $12,216 a month for a baseline date in calendar year 2026. The state calls this the average monthly private LTC Cost, not a divisor.
MinnesotaQuick answer:Minnesota divides uncompensated transfers by $11,869 a month for July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027. The figure is the statewide average payment for skilled nursing facility care, which is what Medical Assistance pays rather than what a private patient is charged.
MississippiQuick answer:Mississippi’s transfer of assets divisor is $9,430 a month, or $309 a day, on the chart revised January 1, 2026.
MissouriQuick answer:Missouri’s divisor is $8,235 a month, effective 04-01-26. It is not in a regulation and not in the caseworker manual section that explains the arithmetic – it is one row on the Family Support Division’s standards sheet, MHABD Appendix J, headed “Transfer of property penalty”.
MontanaQuick answer:Montana divides the uncompensated value of a transfer by the average daily cost of nursing home care, $343.30 a day from July 1, 2026 onward. The state also publishes the monthly equivalent, $10,299, but the penalty itself is counted in days.
NebraskaQuick answer:Nebraska publishes no statewide divisor, and unlike most states in that position it is not a gap in what has been promulgated; the rule deliberately points at a different figure. 477 NAC 23-003.04(H) divides the countable value of the disposed resource by “the actual monthly cost of care in the specified living arrangement at the current private pay rate.” The divisor is the real monthly private-pay charge at the facility the person is actually in. Two Nebraskans who gave away the same amount can serve different penalties, and the number you need is on a specific facility’s rate sheet.
NevadaQuick answer:Nevada’s transfer-of-assets section (F-400) states the method and prints no rate; every dollar figure in it is a worked example stamped 2004 or 2013. The rate itself is printed in Appendix C of the Medical Assistance Manual, the MAABD Income Standard Chart, as “Average Cost Private Nursing Care”: $9,949.26, effective 04/24, in the September 2024 edition (MTL 08/24), the newest edition found on the state site. What Nevada does state, and what most states do not, is what happens to the leftover fraction: rounding down or disregarding any fractional period of ineligibility is prohibited. The fraction is converted into days instead.
New HampshireQuick answer:In the July 1, 2026 Appendix A, which restates the January 1, 2026 figures, New Hampshire’s statewide average private pay rate is $423.82 a day and $12,892.60 a month.
New JerseyQuick answer:Effective April 1, 2026, New Jersey’s penalty divisor increased from $402.74 to $420.67 a day.
New MexicoQuick answer:New Mexico divides by $9,209 per month, the rate the state has published for applications registered on or after Jan. 1, 2026 (it was $8,947 for 2025). Unlike most states in this series New Mexico prints its own unit, and it keeps every historical rate back to 1988 in the same table, and the figure that governs a file is the one in force when the application was registered, because costs of care are based on the date of application registration.
New YorkQuick answer:New York uses seven regional rates for 2026, from $13,765 a month in the Western region to $15,675 in the Rochester region. New York City is $15,282.
North CarolinaQuick answer:North Carolina divides by $11,904 a month, the average monthly private nursing facility rate the state’s manual gives as of January 1, 2025, and then converts the leftover fraction of a month into days by multiplying it by 31. The manual carrying that figure is stamped REVISED 06/30/2026.
North DakotaQuick answer:For 2026 North Dakota uses $442.22 a day and $13,450.86 a month as the average cost of nursing facility care.
OhioQuick answer:Ohio’s average private pay rate is $7,787 a month, effective September 1, 2024, up from $7,453.
OklahomaQuick answer:Oklahoma divides uncompensated transfers by the average cost of nursing home care shown on OKDHS Appendix C-1, which publishes that figure as $251.07 a day. The appendix carries one effective date, 7/1/2026.
OregonQuick answer:If the initial penalty month is on or after October 1, 2026, Oregon’s divisor is $16,760; for an initial month from October 1, 2024 up to October 1, 2026 it is $14,585.
PennsylvaniaQuick answer:Pennsylvania divides uncompensated transfers by a DAILY figure, not a monthly one. Chapter 440 Appendix A of the state’s Long-Term Care Handbook publishes $421.20 a day effective 1/1/2026, with $12,811.50 shown beside it as the monthly equivalent.
Rhode IslandQuick answer:As of April 2026 Rhode Island’s average private pay rate is $12,106 a month and $398 a day.
South CarolinaQuick answer:South Carolina divides uncompensated transfers by $9,758.58 a month, or $320.83 a day, effective January 1, 2026. The manual is explicit that the answer is NOT rounded down: the leftover fraction is multiplied by 30 to give the penalty in days.
South DakotaQuick answer:South Dakota’s rule pins its divisor to the state’s current FISCAL YEAR, although the State Plan describes the figure as the State average at the time of application, so ask which period’s average is being applied before you time an application. ARSD 67:46:05:09 divides the uncompensated value of the transferred assets by the monthly state-wide average of long-term care costs for private pay individuals for the state’s current fiscal year. The rule states no amount; the whole of chapter 67:46:05 was read for this page and its 17 dollar amounts are all resource limits and exclusions.
TennesseeQuick answer:TennCare’s manual divides by the average daily private-pay rate in effect at the later of the application date or the date of transfer, and prints that rate: $295.87 a day ($8,846.10 a month) from 01/01/2026.
TexasQuick answer:Texas uses a daily divisor of $262.37, effective September 1, 2025, for case actions disposed on or after that date. The previous rate, $242.13, had been in place since September 1, 2023.
UtahQuick answer:Utah’s average private-pay rate for nursing homes, used to determine the penalty period, is $7,344 in the edition of Table II-A effective October 1, 2026. The same figure appears in every edition of the table back to the one effective October 1, 2024.
VermontQuick answer:Vermont’s rule states the arithmetic and prints no number. Under the Health Benefits Eligibility and Enrollment rule, the number of DAYS in a penalty period equals the transfers disallowed in a given calendar month divided by the average daily cost to a privately-paying patient of nursing facility services in the state. That daily figure is published somewhere by Vermont; it is not in the rule, and this page does not guess at it.
VirginiaQuick answer:For application dates from January 1, 2025 to the present, Virginia uses $9,703 a month in the northern Virginia localities and $7,324 a month everywhere else.
WashingtonQuick answer:Washington divides uncompensated transfers by the statewide average daily private cost for nursing facilities, $485 a day effective October 1, 2026. The result is rounded DOWN to a whole number of days.
West VirginiaQuick answer:West Virginia divides transfers by its average nursing facility private pay rate of $11,903 a month, stated in the manual as $396.76 per day.
WisconsinQuick answer:Wisconsin’s average nursing home daily rate, effective January 1, 2026, is $352.06. Divestment penalties are counted in days.
WyomingQuick answer:Wyoming’s rules (Chapter 18) regulate the transfer penalty in unusual detail but do not state the divisor; the Department’s Eligibility Operations Manual does: M804 says to divide the uncompensated value by the average private pay rate, and Table 1A lists it as $10,114 (effective January 1, 2026). The promulgated Medicaid rules do not state a divisor, but the manual gives $10,114 a month.

Coverage, stated honestly: 51 of 51 jurisdictions.

Guides › Medicaid and Your House

Updated July 31, 2026. Quick answer: gifts made within the 60-month look-back do not disqualify you forever — they create a penalty period computed by one federal formula (Deficit Reduction Act of 2005): total gifted amount ÷ your state’s average monthly nursing-home cost (the “penalty divisor”) = months Medicaid will not pay. Partial months count. The trap is WHEN the clock starts: not when you gave the gift, but when you are already in care, spent down, and applying — the moment you can least afford it.

Finding your state’s divisor

Each state publishes its divisor (sometimes called the average private-pay rate or transfer penalty divisor) and updates it roughly annually — typically $5,000–$17,000 per month; your state Medicaid agency or any local elder-law practice will have the current figure. Two more rules worth knowing: some transfers are exempt — to a spouse, to a disabled child, and the home to a two-year caregiver child — and gifts older than 60 months never enter the formula at all, which is why five years is the planning horizon. California eliminated its asset limit in 2024 but reinstated it on January 1, 2026, and uses a 30-month look-back that is being phased back in through mid-2028; this calculator reflects the standard federal framework, not Medi-Cal. The after-death side of the house question is separate: estate recovery, state by state.

If you are supporting a parent: two separate tests decide whether you can claim them, and failing the income one still leaves you the deduction for their medical and care costs — which at care prices is usually the larger of the two.

Figures verified against each state’s own Medicaid manual, rule or agency notice, California’s DHCS letters 26-03 and 25-18, and 42 U.S.C. §1396p(c) on September 30, 2026 (Texas, Massachusetts, Arkansas and New Hampshire notices were read from archived copies of the agency documents); the Arkansas per-diem construction and the rule text for the District of Columbia, Nebraska, Vermont and Wyoming were not re-checked.

A divisor result is arithmetic, not advice. If you are considering paid help to act on it, it is worth knowing where a non-attorney planner’s work stops and the practice of law begins in your state.

The state-by-state estate-recovery comparison covers all 51 jurisdictions as of September 3, 2026. The seven added that day: Medicaid estate recovery in Arkansas (probate estate only), Medicaid estate recovery in Colorado (probate estate only), Medicaid estate recovery in Connecticut (probate estate only), Medicaid estate recovery in Delaware (probate estate only), Medicaid estate recovery in Mississippi (probate estate only), Medicaid estate recovery in Virginia (expanded estate) and Medicaid estate recovery in West Virginia (probate estate only).