Qualifying for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care does not mean your home is safe forever. Georgia participates in Medicaid Estate Recovery, a program that allows the state to claim reimbursement from your estate after you die for what Medicaid paid during your lifetime.
For most Georgia families, the home is the primary asset at risk. Knowing how estate recovery works is the first step to protecting your house.
What Is Medicaid Estate Recovery?
Federal law requires states to attempt to recover Medicaid costs from the estates of deceased Medicaid recipients who were 55 or older when they received benefits, or who lived permanently in a nursing home. Georgia complies with this requirement.
After you die, the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) may file a claim against your estate for the total amount Medicaid paid for your nursing home care. If your home passes through your estate (through a will, intestate succession, or a revocable trust), the state can file a claim against it, and paying that claim can mean selling the house.
In Georgia, “your estate” means more than what goes through probate. Under Georgia’s estate recovery rule, it also includes property that passes by joint tenancy, survivorship, life estate, trust, annuity, IRA, or any other arrangement. Georgia’s Department of Community Health says the same thing in its own public guidance. No Georgia court has decided how far this rule can be enforced, but the state has said it will pursue these assets. Georgia waives its claim against the first $25,000 of any estate.
When Is Recovery Delayed or Reduced?
Georgia has to wait while any of these is true:
- Your husband or wife is still alive.
- You have a child under 21. The child does not have to live in the home.
- You have a child of any age who is blind or permanently disabled.
If Georgia placed a lien on your home while you were in a nursing home, it also waits while either of these people still lives there: a brother or sister who co-owns the home and lived there at least a year before you went in, or a son or daughter who lived there at least two years and whose care kept you at home longer.
This is a delay, not a cancellation. Once none of these is true, the state can go forward with its claim. So even if your spouse lives in the home for years, the state can still make a claim after your spouse dies.
Georgia does not collect from an estate worth $25,000 or less. For a larger estate, Georgia waives its claim to the first $25,000, so the most it can seek is the value above that, and never more than Medicaid actually paid. Your heirs can also ask Georgia to waive or delay the claim if it would cause undue hardship, but this is narrow and requires a written request.
How Medicaid Estate Recovery Affects Your Home
Your home was exempt from Medicaid’s asset count during your lifetime, which means it did not prevent you from qualifying. But that exemption ends at death. The home then becomes subject to estate recovery unless it was properly protected beforehand.
Example: A Georgia woman qualifies for Medicaid at 78. Medicaid pays $9,000/month for three years, a total of $324,000. She dies and leaves her home (worth $280,000) to her daughter in her will. Georgia DCH can file an estate recovery claim for what Medicaid paid. Because Georgia waives its claim against the first $25,000 of any estate, up to $255,000 of the home’s value is exposed. The daughter either pays the claim or may have to sell the house.
How to Protect Your Home
Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT)
A stronger way to protect your home from Medicaid estate recovery than a revocable trust is to transfer it into a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust more than five years before you apply for Medicaid. Its strength does not come from skipping probate. It comes from giving up ownership. Once the home is in a properly structured MAPT and you keep no right to the principal, you no longer own it. Federal law (42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(4)) lets a state claim only assets you still had a legal title or interest in when you died. So the home is generally outside what Georgia can claim. But Georgia’s rules do mention trusts, any income or right to live in the home that you keep may still count, and no Georgia court has settled the question. No trust is a guarantee.
Why a Lady Bird Deed Is Not an Option in Georgia
Georgia does not recognize a true Lady Bird deed, also called an enhanced life estate deed. See Lady Bird Deed in Georgia: Does It Exist? for what Georgia offers instead. A regular life estate does not help either. Georgia’s rule lists “life estate” as part of the recoverable estate, and Georgia’s Medicaid manual says a life estate does not exempt the home from estate recovery.
Why a Transfer on Death Deed Does Not Protect the Home
Georgia’s Transfer on Death deed lets you name a beneficiary who receives your home automatically at death without probate. Skipping probate does not keep the home away from estate recovery. Georgia’s rule counts property that passes by “any other arrangement,” so a TOD deed does not reliably protect the home from a Medicaid claim.
The Window to Plan Is Before You Need Care
Protecting the home requires advance planning. A MAPT must be in place five years before you apply for Medicaid, and it should be set up well before any health crisis.
If you want to protect your home and pass it to your family instead of the state, the best time to plan is before you need care. The Hive Law helps Georgia families set up Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts and the estate plans around them. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust gives the home stronger protection than a revocable trust, but no trust is a guarantee. Start with a Free Strategy Call to understand your options.
