My mother is in an assistant living with Dementia. She is receiving hospice, she is receiving Medicaid for the last five years. She has a will and has will her trailer to her children. If we decide to keep it do we have to pay back Medicaid?
Just what can be done will be very much interdependent on your state's property and probate laws and any exemptions or exclusions to MERP (medicaid estate recovery) as per your states administrative code.
Not all states allow for Medicaid to place a lien on the property while the Medicaid receipient is alive but instead the $ paid by Medicaid is a claim against the estate of the deceased if probate is opened; if family/heirs do not open probate, most states have it that they are considered to have died "intestate" and intestate deaths usually have all assets escheat to the state. If its escheated to the state, they kinda control it. You would have to prove you are a heir and then deal with getting a release of the lien to transfer ownership correctly.
5 years Medicaid going to be 6 figures $$ owed to State.
Trailers are notorious for not retaining value. 5 years depreciation too. If in a park, no land value. Look at tax assessors bill...value Could be low.
SKeith - a ? For you.....If mom has been on Medicaid & in AL for 5 years, just who has been paying utilities, taxes, insurance, etc? Your mom has had to do the medicaid required copay/Share of cost to AL. So she has no $ but monthly personal needs allowance (average $60). Just who has been paying trailer costs? Are they living in it? Or vacant 5 years?
Skeith, I think the issue is not whether you can keep the trailer but rather whether or not Medicaid has filed a lien against it. Another issue is that, from my understanding, trailers are often on rented property; thus, all Medicaid could take would be the trailer and not the underlying land.
You'll first need to determine if Medicaid has filed a lien on the trailer. Since this would be a lien on a trailer rather than property, I'm not sure where the lien would be recorded. For property, you would search at the county Register of Deeds (or similar) office. It's possible Medicaid would have filed a lien through the Uniform Commercial Code as would be done commercially to lien assets and collateral for a loan.
Perhaps one of the Medicaid experts here can answer this question. Or, you can contact your Medicaid office and ask for a copy of any lien filed.
Not all states allow for Medicaid to place a lien on the property while the Medicaid receipient is alive but instead the $ paid by Medicaid is a claim against the estate of the deceased if probate is opened; if family/heirs do not open probate, most states have it that they are considered to have died "intestate" and intestate deaths usually have all assets escheat to the state. If its escheated to the state, they kinda control it. You would have to prove you are a heir and then deal with getting a release of the lien to transfer ownership correctly.
5 years Medicaid going to be 6 figures $$ owed to State.
Trailers are notorious for not retaining value. 5 years depreciation too. If in a park, no land value. Look at tax assessors bill...value Could be low.
SKeith - a ? For you.....If mom has been on Medicaid & in AL for 5 years, just who has been paying utilities, taxes, insurance, etc? Your mom has had to do the medicaid required copay/Share of cost to AL. So she has no $ but monthly personal needs allowance (average $60). Just who has been paying trailer costs? Are they living in it? Or vacant 5 years?
You'll first need to determine if Medicaid has filed a lien on the trailer. Since this would be a lien on a trailer rather than property, I'm not sure where the lien would be recorded. For property, you would search at the county Register of Deeds (or similar) office. It's possible Medicaid would have filed a lien through the Uniform Commercial Code as would be done commercially to lien assets and collateral for a loan.
Perhaps one of the Medicaid experts here can answer this question. Or, you can contact your Medicaid office and ask for a copy of any lien filed.