Can the nursing home take my parents' home?

Wills mean nothing when it comes to Medicaid. They are entitled to recover money that was used on Moms care.

My Dad passed before my Mom. The house reverted to Mom. Mom was on Medicaid. Upon her death I received recovery paperwork so a lean could be placed on the house. One of the questions was "does a family member reside in the house and if so, is this their main residence" It went on to say that the person can continue to reside there, but a lean will be put on the house. If the resident should sell, leave or pass away, the lean will need to be satisfied.

So, now that a parent is on Medicaid you will never truly "own" the house unless u personally pay off the lean.

Every situation is different as is every state. Moms house did not sell while she was alive. I excepted a price that would pay the back taxes and the Medicaid lean. The beneficiaries received very little.

You may want to consult an attorney familiar with the Medicaid laws of your state.

Right now, in most states, the house is considered a protected asset by Medicaid as long as your dad lives there or can expect that he will return there after a stint in a hospital or rehab.

The money Medicaid is sending to the nursing home for your mother is money they will try to recover from her estate after she dies. Even then, though, your father will not be forced to sell if he still wants to live in the house.

Depending on how much Medicaid ends up paying for your mom, the estate might not need to sell the house to pay them back. However, I wouldn't count on inheriting the house. It's likely the largest asset your parents have if she has qualified for Medicaid.

A lawyer will be able to explain how this works.

The home of a nursing home resident is an exempt asset as long as the spouse is living there. Your mom's death will have no effect on your dad keeping his home. Once he passes, either before or after her, the house is no longer protected and Medicaid can claim it as repayment. Also if he leaves the home for AL or to live elsewhere, it becomes a recoverable asset. So it doesn't depend on the Medicaid spouse passing, it depends on the "community" spouse no longer living there as to whether the house is protected.

What can happen is in my experience is very much interdependent on your states laws for property rights, probate and Medicaids administrative code. All states - due to Bush era 2005 Deficit Reduction Act - are now require to have in place a system (MERP) to attempt recovery of costs paid by Medicaid for care for those over age 55 receiving Medicaid. In some states MERP is done in-house by state employees; other states have outside contractors who do this along the lines of what debt collectors do and get a % of the recovery.

some states have preset hardship exemptions based on property value, like if under 65k, then MERP waived. Others have it at 100k.
some states do not attempt recovery at all if community spouse living in the home; others do after death of the community spouse.
some states allow for a predeath lien placed (tifra); other states do not, it’s all post death lien and can become a claim against the estate if probate is opened.

If probate opened, then probate laws factor in, especially for now claims are done. So what’s in a will matters for those who open probate. If there is a Testamentary Trust, how thats worded matters. If your State is a Level of Claim by Class, just where MERP fits for class matters. Like for TX MERP is a class 7 so Class 1- 6 are priority before Class 7; credit cards are Class 8. Some states allow probate to remain open for quite a long period.

To find out just how MERP rolls, you need to meet with attorneys who do both elder law and probate with an understanding of Medicaid rules for your state.
Also give a bit of thought as to if Dad in the future needed himself to go into a facility on Medicaid, could you have the time & wallet to pay the whatevers on the now empty property for an undetermined period of time? Like for when he’s in the NH and then after he & mom both die? And then deal with MERP for however long that might take? A property that costs 25k a yr in cost maybe manageable while one at 50k isn’t.

If your elder wants to keep their old homestead, family can do it for them if family have the time, wallet and sense of humor to make it happen. But it runs a risk of not working out, like for not being affordable over time OR that the hoped for MERP exclusions, exemptions or cost/ benefit doesn’t work; OR that it falls to 1 person to do and pay for everything house even tho’ all would share equally as per the Will and that person is over the old place; or probate issues, like the Executor structures distribution not exactly as you would have liked.

The NH doesn’t want their home. NH wants to get paid for their stay, whether it’s via Medicaid or private pay.

From the US Department of Health & Human Services website:
https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/medicaid-treatment-home-determining-eligibility-and-repayment-long-term-care

"Although the home generally remains an exempt asset while the Medicaid recipient is still living, it becomes a countable, or recoverable, asset after the recipient dies. In other words, states have the right to recoup Medicaid-financed long-term care costs incurred on behalf of the recipient from the equity interest in the individual's home upon death, along with any other assets in the estate. States recoup these costs through the administrative vehicle of estate recovery programs. In these cases, the recipients heirs must pay off Medicaid's claim in order to receive a clear title to the property. Heirs who lack the means to settle the Medicaid claim may either obtain a loan or mortgage to keep the home in the family or sell the property and use proceeds of the sale to reimburse Medicaid for expenses paid on behalf of the recipient."

Once  your dad leaves the home or dies, the home becomes an asset that can be counted against Medicaid eligibility. States differ in their rules. Assets owned by Medicaid recipients are expected to go towards the Medicaid costs. Presumably you knew that: when the state pays nursing home bills, the state will recover those costs from all assets, after the owner dies or no longer lives in the home.

So no, the nursing home can't take the home. But the government will require repayment of Medicaid bills from the estate.

Nursing homes don’t ever take homes. Medicaid places liens on homes. They don’t actually take the house. Medicaid estate recovery cares nothing about wills either. If the house is subject to Medicaid asset recovery after your mother’s death, the fact that your parents left you the house in the will means little to Medicaid, it doesn’t mean you get to keep the house and Medicaid has to write off the debt.