A pre-recorded streaming video replay of the October 2021 webcast, A Quick Primer on Medicaid Estate Recovery in Virginia.
Topics Covered
The cost of long-term care for seniors increasingly is being paid by public benefits. These elders have undertaken sophisticated financial and long-term care planning. When these individuals die, they may have assets while at the same time be eligible for Medicaid. How do you address the personal representative’s or intestate heir’s potential liability when Medicaid “comes knocking at the door”?
- Understand the importance of the proper administration of a decedent’s estate by a personal representative, especially when the Commonwealth may be a creditor
- The personal representative can have personal, and often unlimited, liability if he or she does not administer the estate appropriately—discover ways to protect the fiduciary
- Review what Medicaid defines as the “decedent’s estate”
- If there is no personal representative, an intestate heir may have liability—explore ways to protect the heir
- Learn about the exceptions to estate recovery or methods to minimize recovery
Created in 1965, Medicaid is a system funded and administered through a state and federal partnership. It pays the medical costs, including long-term nursing home care and community-based nursing care, for individuals who are deemed to be financially and medically needy. States have broad discretion with the administration of the program, and the eligibility and benefit rules vary significantly. Medicaid recipients must have limited income and resources. Through various means, however, recipients occasionally die with financial resources or assets. It can occur because of an inheritance, personal injury settlement or award, ownership of the recipient’s residence, or another unplanned economic windfall.
In 1993, the federal government mandated that states establish individual plans to recover Medicaid payments from recipients after they die for nursing facility services and home and community-based services and prescription drug services, or, at the option of the state, any items or services under the state plan. States have various levels of estate recovery programs in place. Recently, Virginia has stepped up its collection efforts.
This program discusses appropriate ways to represent heirs and fiduciaries to respond to the Commonwealth’s collection efforts.