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She died in Jan 2019 at the hospital after living at a nursing home. She was on Medicaid for approximately 4 months. I have not received any notice from them. It's July 1st. I'm tired of waiting!!

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When Mom died in Sept 2017, I called her caseworker and asked for the amt of money she owed so I knew how to price her house. After 3 months, it was 6k. I received a letter but never paperwork. As of this year, no lean was put on the house. I called the Medicaid office and they gave me a number in Trenton.

I was told that the paperwork should have gone to the NH once they told them of her death. The NH fills out the part to who they have as contact and send the paperwork back to Trenton. Seems this was not done. So, they sent me the paperwork, I filled it out, and a lean was put on the house. Which I needed on file if the house sold.

Even if Mom has no money, you will need to prove there isn't any to wipe the debt. YOU ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE. Call your Moms caseworker and ask for a phone number for the Dept in ur Capitol that handles it.

There was a post awhile back where the family was not aware that Medicaid was owed. They sold the house and split the proceeds up among the beneficiaries. Three years later they received paperwork asking for money back. I believe in being pro active.
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Whitehouse19 Jul 2019
Thank you for the leads.
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Is there any possibility that the NOI (notice of intent) sent out for MERP could have gone somewhere other than to you at your address? There have. Been posts that it went to the NH or went to another family members address. Or even to their old resident address - if they went onto Medicaid owning a home and subsequently sold it.... address still in their master file.

If everything medicaid, like annual eligibility letter, renewal questionnaire came to you at your address, then it’s that however your state does recovery moves s...l...o...w...l..y.

What will make a huge difference as to when you get NOI is IF your state does MERP aka Estate Recovery by state employees or if it is being done by an outside contractor. The contractors -2 main ones - get on it within short order as they get a % of the recovery & imo are similar to how debt collectors operate.

Its basically 5 months right now, so I’m guessing it’s state employees, which can move glacially.

There does seem to be now a match up of “asset” items done based on the stuff you turned in in her initial application and any renewals. If she didn’t continue to own her home or have a car, there’s no asset recovery possible to attempt on that front. If her life insurance had beneficiary as a person like you and NOT her Estate, then too no asset recovery possible on that front. There’s no assets = no Estate = no Recovery. If this sounds like your mom’s situation, she may already be on the no recovery list.

If you should get a NOI (notice of intent) eventually it will be a multiple page questionnaire. A lot of the ? are those answered before in initial application or renewals - so if you have a binder or box with that don’t throw it away. It will ask for bank balance as of DOD (date of death), so keep her bank statements. Will ask on funeral status, like if there was a prepaid policy, you send a copy of that in; if you paid out of pocket for funeral stuff add that up and send it. Floral & police escort are almost always not included in preened so you can send in those costs if need be. Funeral & burial costs are usually a priority or higher class of estate / deceased expense / debt of estate and payable before anything to MERP, should there be $ left in mom’s bank account.

I think its if assets over $2500 will a recovery attempt happen.

Also remember that if mom had a personal needs trust account at the NH, that $ should be sent as a check in the name of whomever was on file as a signature on it. Usually it’s held as a POD (pay on death) so not an asset of the Estate.
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Whitehouse19 Jul 2019
Thank you for explaining the steps. I'm going to go back through her paperwork to start with, now that I know what to look for.
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If your mom, like mine, left no estate, there shouldn’t be a bill and that may be why you received nothing. Remember, you aren't responsible for paying any of her bills from your own money.

To remove any doubt, you can always call your local Medicaid office and ask.
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JoAnn29 Jul 2019
They still send out paperwork. You have to prove there are no assets.
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