Is an adult child who lives with elderly parent responsible for parent’s care if the go into nursing home?

Each person is responsible for their own expenses.  Please be careful to structure your payments to your mother as rent so that Medicaid does not treat them as gifts if you enter a nursing home and need Medicaid:  transfers for less than fair market value during the 60 months before the month of Medicaid application are treated as an attempt to qualify for Medicaid, resulting in a penalty period during which Medicaid does not pay.  Please also note that if your mother enters a nursing home and needs Medicaid, Pennsylvania can put a lien on her home.  Lastly, these days more people are going into assisted living, which is not paid for by Medicaid or Medicare (though Medicare will provide home health services there on doctor's orders).  Your mother may want to access the equity in her home to pay for this,  To discuss your situation and the possibilities in detail with an elder law attorney, use the Find a Lawyer function on the website of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (www.naela.org)