Medicaid Recovery Act in Texas. I am a caregiver, taking care of my mom who suffers from advanced Alz/Dementia. In 2010, I had a Deed of Trust created to protect my mom's only asset (her home). It states my mom's home will transfer to me at the time of her demise. Until recently, I was paying for all provider services out-of-pocket because my mom was ~$170 over the Medicaid income cap.
But, recently my mom began recieving Medicaid Provider Services (using a Miller's Trust).
My question is: Under the Medicaid Recovery Act, will Medicaid go after my mother's home (after she passes) in order to pay for services provided by Medicaid?
Based on the original post, Savannah's parent in TX has a Miller Trust & supposedly a "LadyBird" Deed done. If those were done correctly then:
-the Miller, which is a way to get those with just too much income each month to be under your specific state set monetary ceiling, left-over funds will pass to the state. For some states Miller is a pass through so upon death there is no excess but for other states the excess builds with state as the beneficiary for the excess income.
Whichever is the case, the Miller funds are the state's.
- for the LadyBIrd aka Enhanced Life Estate Deed, it means that the property has been set up to transfer or pass outside of probate. There are just a handful of state that allow for ELED's (TX, MI do). Now it is through probate that MERP - Medicaid Estate Recovery Program is done. In theory, no probate = no MERP.
If it is correct, then whomever legal Savannah & her mom saw knew what to do to make things work entirely legally to have the state pay & to the families best advantage to inherit the house.
If Savannah's mom's ELED was done correctly, whomever is named in the ELED gets the house and the state's Medicaid / MERP cannot do a thing about it. But they kinda have to let the state know so that the state can send a release statement from MERP. It is important to get this so that if in the future and you need to sell the property, or get a loan using it as collateral, you can show clean & clear title with no state of TX MERP claim.
How MERP is done depends on state law. As Kathleen said, for Mass the children or spouse have to agree for MERP & you have 9 months to sell a property. For TX, you do not have to sign off to agree to MERP, it is an "acknowledgement of MERP" which by applying for Medicaid means you accept whatever & however Medicaid & MERP runs and if you sell the house, it sells when it sells whether the day after it goes on the market or takes up to the full 4 years allowed for probate.
All states have exclusions or exemptions to MERP and also have to allow for appeals.
The key is either doing planning before a NH or carefully documenting all whatevers to file MERP exemptions or exclusions (property costs, caregiver exemption, heir low income exemptions, etc.) after they die. All this done within the short time-frame required by your state. For most family they are still bereaving and just cannot do what is required to use the exemptions or exclusions to their best advantage or be able to present in probate court as they need to so they need a good attorney to represent them.
The revocable trust is irrelevant in this case, since the money is not in the trust.