Medicaid Estate Recovery in Kansas

Medicaid Estate Recovery in Kansas: key facts

Recovery scope

The cost of Medicaid medical assistance paid on the recipient's behalf after June 30, 1992. A claim based on assistance paid before July 1, 2004 is limited to the recipient's probatable estate. A claim based on assistance paid on or after July 1, 2004 reaches the recipient's "medical assistance estate," which includes 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.

Who is subject

Recipients who were 55 or older when the assistance was paid, and recipients who were admitted as an inpatient in a long-term care facility, including a PACE institutional arrangement. Recipients who received only Medicare cost-sharing coverage (QMB, LMB, QWD) are excluded.

When recovery is barred or deferred

The estate is not subject to a claim for correctly paid assistance 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; there is no recovery until after the surviving spouse's death and only when no child under 21 or blind or permanently and totally disabled child survives.

Home lien restrictions

A lien is not imposed on the recipient's home while the recipient's 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.

Priority in probate

In a decedent's estate the claim is a first-class claim. Reasonable funeral expenses are the only claim payable ahead of the medical assistance claim.

Undue hardship waiver

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. The published factors are the type of assets involved, whether there is an alternative means of satisfying the claim, actions of the family in helping the decedent (particularly where they avoided or reduced Medicaid costs), the impact of recovery on the surviving family's finances, the impact on a business in which the decedent owned an interest, and any other relevant factors.

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

Steps to take when someone dies

1. Determine whether the deceased received Medicaid (KanCare) medical assistance at age 55 or older, or as an inpatient in a long-term care facility (including a PACE institutional arrangement).
2. Contact the Estate Recovery Unit through the state's estate recovery contractor, Health Management Systems (800-817-8617), to confirm whether a recovery claim applies and to request the amount.
3. Treat an allowed claim as a first-class debt of the estate — payable after reasonable funeral expenses and before distributions to heirs.
4. Request an undue-hardship waiver from the Estate Recovery Unit if recovery would create undue hardship for the surviving family or for a business the decedent owned an interest in.

Frequently asked questions