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CAN
THE SPOUSE KEEP THE HOUSE?
Many
families are concerned that if a spouse enters a long-term care
facility, the marital home will be eventually lost.
Medicaid
has no intention of evicting the at-home spouse (also
known
as the Community Spouse). Nor
does Medicaid require the at-home spouse to sell the home and apply
the proceeds toward long term care costs.
What
Medicaid can do, under the veil of estate recovery, is place a
"lien" of claim on the subject premises.
When the Community Spouse passes away, or when the Community
Spouse sells the house, then Medicaid can demand to be reimbursed for
all monies expended on behalf of the ailing spouse.
Under
the law, there is a way to avoid both the lien and any estate
recovery. If an ailing spouse conveys his/her share of the marital
home to the Community Spouse (healthy spouse) within the proper time
period, then the residence becomes an exempt asset.
Medicaid
will place no claim on the premises whatsoever.
When
the healthy spouse dies, he/she is free to pass it to her family. This
presupposes that the healthy spouse survives the ailing
institutionalized spouse.
NOTE
WELL: In order for a family to take advantage of this
Medicaid regulation, the couple should have the proper estate planning
instruments in place. Such
properly drafted documents will allow the Community Spouse to sign the
Deed of transfer on behalf of the ailing spouse.
The
rules discussed above apply to married individuals. In another
newsletter, we will discuss the status of the primary residence
insofar as single people are concerned.
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