Article on Home Sweet Home: Making Sense of Medicaid Recovery

Rick Weaver & Travis Weaver recently published an Article entitled, Home Sweet Home: Making Sense of Medicaid Recovery, 80 Tex. B. J. 128 (2017). Provided below is an abstract of the Article:

So, you qualified for Medicaid and own a house but now some lawyer tells you that the state can come in and recover against your home for any costs incurred for your stay in a Medicaid facility. What do you do? 

Luckily, there are two tried and true methods for protecting your home. The first method involves deeding your property to someone else by means of an enhanced life estate deed, or “Lady Bird deed.” Named after President Lyndon B. Johnson’s wife, a Lady Bird deed is an instrument whereby a Medicaid recipient deeds his or her home to a family member or close friend while simultaneously reserving the right to live on the property during the Medicaid recipient’s life. For Medicaid purposes, the recipient no longer technically owns this property after death. MERP cannot file against a person if that person doesn’t own anything. As long as the deed is drafted correctly and filed with the correct county prior to the recipient’s death, the home and land is protected from such recovery claims.