Can Medicare or Medicaid Take Your House?

Table Of Content

• Will Medicaid provide payment for a family member who needs nursing home care?
• Eligibility in
• Federal Government Has Pressed People to Rely on Private Funds
• I am single, and my adult children live in my home. Will Medicaid take my home after I die?
• California’s proposed budget cuts would leave many autistic young adults without a safety net
• Work With an Elder Law Attorney

However, there is one exception known as the Caregiver Child Exemption or Caretaker Child Exception. This rule allows a parent to transfer their home to their adult child without violating the Look-Back Period. The adult child must have lived with their parent at least two years immediately prior to the parent moving to a nursing home or assisted living facility paid for by Medicaid. (Note that it is care services Medicaid pays for in assisted living, not room and board). The adult child also must have provided a level of care during this time that delayed the parent’s need for nursing home care.

Will Medicaid provide payment for a family member who needs nursing home care?

If possible, consult with an elder law attorney before you enter a nursing home (or immediately afterward) to discuss ways to protect your home. When one’s spouse moves into a Medicaid-funded nursing home, the spouse that remains at home is considered the community spouse, and as such, they are entitled to keep the home. While there is no home equity interest limit, it is best to have the house title only in the community spouse’s name. As the non-applicant spouse, the home can be transferred to them without violating Medicaid’s Look-Back Period.

Eligibility in

That someone could now take that house from us seemed an impossibly cruel twist. After I hung up the phone, I went online to look for evidence that she was mistaken. What I found instead was page after page of attorney ads warning potential Medicaid recipients to hire them immediately in order to save their home before it was too late. “You must be kidding me,” Tawanda recalled telling the MassHealth caseworker on the phone.

Federal Government Has Pressed People to Rely on Private Funds

In particular, we applaud CMS’ recognition that hospitals treat all patients the same — regardless of coverage — by formally adopting the average commercial rate as the upper payment limit as advocated by the AHA. Codifying this provision ensures that hospitals have appropriate resources to serve Medicaid patients and strengthen America’s safety-net. The AHA also appreciates CMS’ efforts to streamline the approval of certain existing arrangements, which will cut down on bureaucracy and burden and allow hospitals to focus on their patients. Homes thatlong-term Medicaid recipients try to transfer are considered availableassets for state liens.

Even if no one is living in the home of a Medicaid applicant or recipient, the home can still be exempt from the asset limit if the applicant/recipient files an intent to return home. This is an official signed document stating that even though the Medicaid applicant/recipient is not currently living in the home, they still consider it their primary residence and they intend to return living there. Some states have standard intent to return forms, but there is no common form used across all 50 states. The adult child will need to prove they have been living in the home as a primary residence and providing the necessary level of care. They can do this with appropriate documents, such as paid utility bills and signed doctor’s statements.

Where can I find information about a nursing home's health or fire-safety inspection results?

The story moved President Reagan, propelling the federal government to allow states to waive some Medicaid requirements so that people could get services in their homes instead of institutions. For eligible adults with serious disabilities or injuries, Medi-Cal covers a nursing home if a physician authorizes it but will not cover the same level of care at home without a waiver. Yet "for every dollar they spend to recover, the federal government reimburses them 50 cents," she said. "I don't know if it makes sense for states to spend money to recover funds they can keep nothing of."

I am single, and my adult children live in my home. Will Medicaid take my home after I die?

Your state’s Medicaid estate recovery program may also extend to other circumstances, like if, for example, an adult child (neither blind nor disabled) lived full time at the deceased's home. Today she hears Democratic presidential candidates talking about a public option and Medicare for All, and she wonders if that would render a low-income program such as Medicaid redundant, and estate recovery a thing of the past. Last year her attorney told her that her best option was to accept a deal from MassHealth that would keep its claim on the house but allow her to remain there as a tenant until her death. (Oliver died in 2018.) But the contract stipulated that if she fell behind on any of her bills or taxes, or didn’t keep up on repairs, she’d have to vacate. The home of a Medicaid applicant or recipient will not be counted against the asset limit if they have a child who is blind, disabled or under the age of 21 living in the home. The home must be the primary residence of the qualifying child in order for it to be exempt, but it does not need to meet any home equity limits.

States aren’t allowed to make estate recoveries while your spouse is alive, but they can try to recover Medicaid funds spent on your health care after your spouse dies. States can’t make recoveries if you have a living child who is under 21 years old, blind, or disabled. In states that have MERPs that go beyond long-term care costs, this has resulted in some people being caught off-guard by the estate recovery programs. Medicaid is a complex program with overarching federal policies and unique state-level regulations. When one relocates to a nursing home, they should provide a written statement of “Intent to Return” home. This will allow one’s home to remain exempt under Medicaid rules as long as their home equity interest is under a specified value.

For HCBS Waiver and Nursing Home Medicaid applicants, the home must also be under the state’s home equity interest limit for it to be exempt from the asset limit. For most states in 2024, the home equity interest limit is either $713,000 or $1,071,000 (for states with higher property values) except in California, where there is no home equity limit. ABD Medicaid applicants are not required to meet the home equity interest limit in their state. Medicaid estate recovery is the process by which the Medicaid program can recoup some or all of the money that the program spent on a person's care. If your state has a Partnership for Long-Term Care program (nearly all states do), you can protect some of your assets from MERP by purchasing a private long-term care policy.

Elder Law: Can Medicaid Take Your House? - ElderLawAnswers.com

Elder Law: Can Medicaid Take Your House?.

Posted: Wed, 10 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

To be eligible for Medicaid long-term care, recipients must have limited incomes and no more than $2,000 (in most states). Even if the state did not place a lien on the home during the Medicaid recipient's life, the home may still be subject to estate recovery after their Medicaid recipient’s death. Once there is a lien on the property, if the property sells while the Medicaid recipient is living, they cease to be eligible for Medicaid because of the cash from the sale. In addition, they would have to satisfy the lien by paying back the state for its coverage of care to date. As her mother's early-onset Alzheimer's worsened, Mfalme continued to care for her.

This article will explain how MERP came to be, how it applies in practice, and how the Affordable Care Act affects Medicaid estate recovery. Most states have laws on the books making adult children responsible if their parents can't afford to take care of themselves. There are ways to handle excess income or assets and still qualify for Medicaid long-term care, and programs that deliver care at home rather than in a nursing home. Some states, such as Florida, file for Estate Recovery following the death of the surviving spouse. Other states, such as California and Texas, prohibit Estate Recovery after the surviving spouse dies.

For example, a person younger than 65 who has retired early and is living on their savings might qualify for Medicaid, despite having a solid nest egg and a paid-off house. This is because Medicaid eligibility will be based only on their taxable income, regardless of their assets. Under the ACA, Medicaid eligibility for adults under the age of 65 has been expanded to include most people with household incomes that don't exceed 138% of the poverty level. Moreover, in states that have implemented Medicaid expansion, you may be eligible based on income alone. The Medicaid Estate Recovery Program (MERP) allows Medicaid to recover the money it spent on your care from your estate.

The only exception is if the surviving spouse was also a Medicaid recipient. While it's too late for Nita's estate, it might not be too late for yours. "Your attorney will take out their fees for the sale of the house. Any medical bills, nursing care facility, taxes on the house and then MaineCare took the rest." There are exceptions to estate recovery, like if you have a spouse or a child under 21. Gideon was born with a heart defect and uses a ventilator and a feeding tube, requiring ‘round-the-clock care. His mother, Jessica Gonzalez, applied for an HCBA waiver, and if it had come through, Gideon would have been able to keep the Medi-Cal coverage he lost at the end of September due to his family’s income.

However, states can choose to recover costs for all payments, not just long-term care expenses. It does not happen, for example, when the deceased leaves behind a surviving spouse. Also, since Medicaid has strict financial eligibility requirements to qualify in the first place, it’s possible that the recipient won’t have much money left to pay back Medicaid to anyway. Tawanda reminded her caseworker of the lien release the agency had sent her years ago. But “what they didn’t tell me then was that they had the right to reinstate” the claim on the property after her mother’s death.