jeannegibbs Asked August 2011
How does Medicaid Estate Recovery work when the surviving spouse owned the home jointly?
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My husband receives Medicaid benefits. I understand and approve (not that it matters) the concept that the state can recover money they've provided from the sale of the home after the recipient dies. I am 19 years younger than my husband and expect to outlive him. I've been told that I can continue to live in the house until I die, and the state can step in then. Fair enough. But what if I don't want to/can't live in the house the rest of my life? If I sell it to move to AL, for example, can the state recover their money out of the sale? Do I get any share of the equity? (We are in Minnesota.)
(Sometimes I wish we were just "living in sin" -- marriage seems to have financial disadvantages!)
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Secondly if you are asking about IF the MERP /medicaid estate recovery program can go after the estate of an individual who was on Medicaid in the 1990's, probably not. The statute of limitations on debt would be way, way, way over as it's 18 years. But ultimately It would dependent on your states laws.
For TX - I try to keep up as my mom died this year and I am just starting with MERP & probate - for those on medicaid programs who applied before March, 2006, MERP cannot be done. The rules for Medicaid had major changes from the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. After DRA an "acknowledgement of participation" statement is now within the TX medicaid application & on state website of programs. TX signed DRA in March, 2006, so only applications done after that can get estate recovery.
Also you should be able to see if the property has any liens or judgements against it by looking at courthouse records on the property. Most counties have all this on- line to search for free.
That being said, what does MN say for MERP and surviving spouse? For TX if there is living in the home: a surviving spouse, a disabled child of any age, a business based at the home or if taking the home would place anyone living there on the state teat or if the cost to do thru MERP is not finiancially viable then MERP doesn't happen. I've been trying to find out what the $$ trigger is for MERP to happen. It seems to be if the "recovery" would be over 100K. Not the value of the home but what MERP can expect to net after other claims are paid, realtors and other real estate costs are paid. What MERP does if the executrix takes their time to file probate or drags probate out should be interesting to see.
My mom still has her home, she's in LTC on Medicaid as of Jan of this year after being in IL for a couple of years. Now I am keeping track of ALL the expenses on her home that I have paid...everything from property taxes, yard work, utilties, insurance, cable from Jan of this year plus the $$ spent on a caregiver at her IL that kept her from going into the LTC (and off of Medicaid) in the years prior. When she dies, I will send a response letter (to the MERP letter I get) that I will be filing a claim against her estate in probate for all those expenses. This is required to be done within a set amount of time (30 days). Based on the first 6 mo of this year,
I'm looking at spending 6 - 8K a year on the house. Every penny will be filed as a claim in probate. That claim will be paid first & before MERP.
Now depending on your state, keeping track of expenses related to the home might be something you need to do. But papertrails can be so overwhelming.
Not everybody can get into doing it for the long-haul or $ history build required.
Regarding your SS, I'm a somewhat younger spouse too & we have a 13 yr old, although my DH is in good health and working. What we are mulling over is at which age & rate to do SS. You might want to figure out what the payment would be based on your work at 62 vs getting it based on his. I assume you have been married for 10+ years - you need that to get his SS benefit. If you were married before for at least 10 years and the old DH has a higher SS pay out, you can get it based on DH # 1 rather than DH # 2 (really truly)! www.retirement-income.net is a good site for information on SS and other financial stuff.
Sounds like you have a pretty filled plate, stay positive!
Yes...that's basically it.
Note, too, they are only speaking of "probate assets". What if assets are held in a living trust or you own a brokerage account or an IRA or a bank account with a named beneficiary? In most states these assets are not subject to probate and, ergo, not subject to Medicaid recovery.
This is not true in other states such as NJ where almost all assets, regardless of how they are titled, ARE subject to probate. I wonder what the case is in MN? Maybe attending a free estate planning seminar offered by an attorney where you can ask this question would be worthwhile. Or, you could try looking it up on the net! ;-)
http://www.dhs.state.mn.us/main/groups/publications/documents/pub/dhs16_151505.pdf
Hope it helps!
I chuckled about your "living in sin" agreement - many older couples are just having commitment ceremonies, which are not "legal", therefore they don't run into these issues. It's complicated even then, though, because if your husband had wanted to leave the house to you, you'd still have the same lien against it.
Good luck,
Carol