Orange County Estate Planning Attorney Holly Nabiey, discusses ways to avoid Medi-Cal recovery against your home.
Avoiding Medi-Cal Recovery Against Your Home, How and Why To Plan Now
Once you’ve become eligible for Medi-Cal and you figured out what your share of cost is, the next question is whether Medi-Cal recovery against your estate is possible. It turns out if you’re in a long-term Nursing Care Facility at any Age Medi-Cal will submit a claim against your estate for all that they expended on your care. Medi-Cal may place a lean on your home if there aren’t sufficient assets in the estate to pay them back. At nearly $7,500 per month a year’s stay could results in a $90,000 Medi-Cal bill. Unfortunately not enough clients pass away leaving the asset sufficient to pay back Medi-Cal. Typically the only asset remaining at the death of the Medi-Cal recipient is the home.
This means that Medi-Cal is able to put a lien on that home for the amount that they expended on your care.
Fortunately, there are planning opportunity available to avoid the lien on that home and to avoid recovery against your estate. However, it does require experienced help of a skilled elder law or estate planning attorney. That professional can help you transfer the assets out of your name to avoid recovery after you have passed away. Keep in mind that while one spouse is living Medi-Cal cannot recover anything. We’re really only planning for when both spouses or when an unmarried applicant passes away. If you have any questions please call our office for help. Contact us today and set up an appointment.
We offer a many different resources and pamphlets on the subject of creating, updating and implementing estate plans. We also offer a regularly scheduled seminar in our office to help people determine what the best options are for them in their estate planning needs. We hope you sign up for one of our seminars to help you find your best options. We regularly conduct free seminars designed to teach about the benefits of creating an estate plan