My aunt passed on March 2, 2024. My aunt was disabled and had been receiving Medicaid Long-Term Care services from the State of Washington for 50+ years. The only assets that she had was a checking/savings account where she received her SSI and 50% equity share of a home that was co-owned on the deed with my father who has the other share. No mortgage or other outstanding debts. Wondering what steps to take next as far to work with the WA State to settle her affairs.
My father is also deceased. He passed away October 2020. I was able to transfer ownership of aunt and father's portion of the house by filing an Affidavit of Lack of Probate and Quit Claim Deed. The house was put on market, title cleared, and house sale finalized. I was quite surprised that WA State never filed a claim or put a lien on the house.
My plan is set 50% of the proceeds aside in a money market account. If the State contacts me, will gladly give 50% proceeds minus the fees I had paid for 5 months of utilities, home insurance premiums, etc. I had also paid $2000 to a lawyer to handle transfer of the deed on my aunt's behalf so I could sell the place.
How long does it take to here a response from MERS of WA State for repayment? Is there a statue of limitations that DSHS has to file a claim or contact me to recover there share? Should I directly contact DSHS MERP department to voluntarily return the proceeds?
Ethically, I believe the State is entitled to recover the costs for providing Medicaid services to my aunt. In no way do I want to hide or short change them. I do not want the stress of them coming after my assets.
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
For DRA 2005, this was the law that codified that all States had to be more uniform in how the $ for LTC Medicaid was handled and required for all States to attempt to do a recovery via MERP or MERS. All States placed this Bush era law into their administrative code sometime btw 2006-2010. If you were in a NH before your State enacted MERP, you should be grandfathered into the old system & realistically no recovery done. Too bad, so sad. If she also went into a facility before age 55, and stayed in the system for her care, there should be no recovery as she started before age 55 which is the age for which a placement for recovery of cost paid by Medicaid is allowed. Again too bad, so sad,
A good attorney familiar with WA Medicaid laws should be able to quash any attempt for recovery.
On selling the house and no lien surfacing, it could be because the State knows they have no/ zero ability to enforce any recovery because Auntie was in the system before change in the law OR it could be that State of WA does not do a proactive lien placement, that any lien placed must happen after death. TX does the latter and it’s a lein or a claim if probate is opened.
If MERP should sent a letter, it tends to be sent out about 3-6 months after Date of Death and is in the form of a NOI aka a Notice of Intent and will not be warm and fuzzy but more “sorry for the death of Jane Smith Jones and $xxxxx is owed to the State”. Letter is addressed to whomever on file with the State as the contact person for the individual on Medicaid, so at first reading it can seem it is you that owes the $. It is not. There is usually a multipage questionnaire included or done as a subsequent mailing asking for details as to the status of her estate, funeral costs, copy of her bank statement for the month of her DoD, inquiry about her life insurance payouts, her will and if probate to be opened, etc. Should you get this, I would suggest that you run this by an attorney before you answer it. Fwiw some attorneys take the position that it does not have to be answered at all as the debt is not yours. That it could be answerable by the Executor but that cannot happen unless the State enters an actual claim against the Estate in probate court and the claim goes under probate laws for how it could be paid. This is very interdependent on your state laws which is 100% attorney wheelhouse work. Not a DIY.
Realistically State is not going to have any of her old paperwork. Should your attorney file for this for discovery, the State will not have what’s needed to continue. If your Dad and then you did whatever Medicaid and the NH asked for so that Auntie was ok to continue to live in her facility, and somehow Medicaid did not do what they possibly needed to do to make Auntie somehow accountable for recovery, not your problem.
Was Medicaid able to put a lien on Aunts 50%? If so, at sale that lien should have been satisfied. If no lean placed, then you may have a problem when they try to recover. There are stipulations when selling property that Medicaid can recover from. One being it had to sell for Market Value. I hope you kept good records of your out of pocket but I was told not to expect being able to deduct them from proceeds I received from sale of house. You may have to pay Medicaid the whole amount. My Mom was only on Medicaid for 3 months so I was able to get my out of pocket reimbursed from the proceeds of selling her house.
You need a elder lawyer.
I have made sure to keep digital images of receipts for all expenses incurred for the property. Total expenses are around $3000. $2000 for lawyer fees (prepare documents to transfer deed) and $1000 for utilities, home insurance premiums, property tax, and cleaning fees I spent. I will gladly mail or wire them the money if they ask me for it.
My aunt had been on Medicaid for a long time. She died at 90. So I am sure 45 years, what Medicaid is legally entitled to recover for , is well above the $130K, her 50% in proceeds.