Medicaid Estate Recovery in Kansas

What is recovered

K.A.R. 129-6-150(b) makes the amount of medical assistance paid on a recipient's behalf after June 30, 1992 a claim against the property or estate of the deceased recipient.¹

What counts as the estate

Under K.S.A. 39-709(k)(3), a claim based on assistance paid before July 1, 2004 is limited to the recipient's probatable estate.²

For assistance paid on or after July 1, 2004, the claim reaches the "medical assistance estate," including property passing by joint tenancy, tenancy in common, survivorship, transfer-on-death deed, payable-on-death contract, life estate, trust, annuity or similar arrangement, limited to the recipient's own interest.²

Who is subject to recovery

K.A.R. 129-6-150(b)(1) restricts the claim to assistance paid when the recipient was 55 or older, or was admitted as an inpatient in a long-term care facility, including a PACE institutional arrangement.¹

KEESM 1725.1 excludes recipients who received only Medicare cost-sharing coverage (QMB, LMB, QWD).³

When recovery is deferred or barred

Under K.A.R. 129-6-150, the estate is not subject to a claim if a spouse, or a child under 21 or meeting the state's disability criteria, survives the recipient by at least six months. Where a spouse survives, the claim is filed against the surviving spouse's estate instead.¹

K.S.A. 39-709(k)(2) allows no recovery of correctly paid assistance until after the surviving spouse's death, and only when no child under 21 or blind or permanently and totally disabled child survives.²

Liens on real property

KEESM 1725.2(5) bars a lien on the recipient's home while the spouse, a child under 21, a blind or permanently disabled child, or a sibling who holds an equity interest and lived in the home for at least one year before the recipient's long-term-care admission is residing there.³

How the state files its claim

KEESM 1725.1 makes the claim a first-class claim against the decedent's estate. Reasonable funeral expenses are the only claim payable ahead of the medical assistance claim.³

Undue-hardship waiver

Under KEESM 1725.3, a recipient, a recipient's spouse, or a surviving family member may request a waiver of estate recovery, including of a lien, for undue hardship.³

Factors are the type of assets, whether the claim can be satisfied another way, actions of the family in helping the decedent (particularly where they avoided or reduced Medicaid costs), the impact on the surviving family's finances and on a business the decedent owned an interest in, and any other relevant factors.³

Governing law: K.S.A. 39-709(k); K.A.R. 129-6-150

Health Management Systems (HMS)

The state's estate recovery contractor, through which the Estate Recovery Unit is contacted⁴

Phone: 1-800-817-8617

Fax: 1-785-271-9318

1. 1.K.A.R. 129-6-150, Estate recovery
2. 2.K.S.A. 39-709
3. 3.KEESM 1725, Estate Recovery Program
4. 4.KanCare & Medicaid (Kansas Department of Health and Environment)