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Will
I Lose My Home?
Many people who apply for medical assistance
benefits to pay for nursing home care ask this question. For many, the
home constitutes much or most of their life savings. Often, it's the
only asset that a person has to pass on to his or her children.
Under the Medicaid Regulations, the home is an unavailable asset. This
means that it is not taken into consideration when calculating
eligibility for Medicaid. But in 1993, Congress passed a
little-debated law that affects hundreds of thousands of families with
a spouse or elderly parent in a nursing home. That law requires that
states try to recover the value of Medicaid payments made to
nursing home residents.
Estate recovery does not take place until the recipient of the
benefits dies. Then, federal law requires that states attempt to
recover the benefits paid from the recipients' probate estate.
Generally, the probate estate consists of assets that the deceased
owned in his or her name alone without beneficiary designation. Some
states (particularly NJ) go even further and recover from non-probate
assets, including assets owned jointly or payable to a beneficiary.
About two-thirds of the nation's nursing home residents have their
costs paid, in part, by Medicaid. Obviously, the Estate Recovery law
affects many families. The asset most frequently caught in the Estate
Recovery web is the home of the Medicaid recipient. A nursing home
resident can own a home and receive Medicaid benefits without having
to sell the home. Upon death, however, if the home is part of the
probate estate, the state may seek to force the sale of the home in
order to reimburse the state for the payments that were made. |
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James E. De Martino is licensed
to practice in the State of New Jersey.
We specialize in NJ Medicaid and Asset Protection legal services. |
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