This is for Louisiana.
My mother passed away on 2/6/24. She had been in a NH for 5 years. From what I’ve read about exemptions to the Medicaid Estate Recovery Plan (MERP) I’m an exception to their rule. I’m disabled, was a child care giver for more than 2 years before mom was admitted to a NH, we lived together for more than 2 years. The undue hardship wavier might apply to my situation as well. My question is how do I notify Medicaid about these exemptions? Is there a form I need to fill out? Is their a waiver? Who do I need to contact? Should I contact probate court too? I’ve been looking on line for answers, but haven’t found any.
So you know from that will “reading” this week there were multiple wills beyond the one you mom did with her 2106 attorney. imho you want either that 2016 era attorney or another new attorney to open litigation to contest the will “read” this week. Not a DIY.
If you want to, You can on your own contact LTC Medicaid program to ask for the MERP paperwork to file your a caregiver or disabled exemption. If you fill it out and send it in, it will throw a wrench into ability to do things swiftly to change the title. Imo You have nothing to loose by doing this and it will I imagine irritate your siblings. They’re probably unaware of what MERP means…. but you’re not. Can be an advantage.
In my understanding, it does NOT matter what her Will - whatever version of Will it is - ends up being the 1 viewed as valid, because that Medicaid lien or claim will keep the title from being clear and clean and able to legally transfer the property, unless dealt with. The lein will stay lurking. Your Bro can do a Quit Claim Deed and even file it at the parish courthouse but that in and of itself does not guarantee clean title.
The old atty who did moms stuff starting back in 2016 and on, if you like him that where I’d suggest you start…. And it’s to do litigation against your siblings for undue influence over a vulnerable adult which created several wills. For probate court, my guess is the path will be to have all the wills thrown out and instead go to Louisiana’s heirship and succession laws to determine distribution. Having 2-4 new wills looks way sketchy, I cannot see a judge liking this if is a potential heir wth their own attorney there to object. OMGawd 1 just done by a notary, just looks hinky. If judge moves to tossing them out and going to succession, the 3 siblings cannot do squat to transfer or sell unless you get your 1/4. And you hold the upper hand once Medicaid gets involved as you can file get your 1/4 heirship to have the caregiver or disabled heir exemption and they probably cannot. (That is the type of sweet payback that will make them quite unhappy, lol)
Also how pissed are you and how willing to make this hard on them? I ask because if your drivers license has the house as your address, you are a tenant (not a squatter) and the Estate has go through a process to remove a tenancy, which means Executor named and Letters Testamentary issued by & before probate judge that has to be done in order for an Executor to exist to take any actions on the assets of the estate. Really for any of this, You need your atty to be there to contest an Executor being appointed from the start. My guess is atty will want to force it to become a dependent administration so has to be court supervised. Again having your own atty there to contest sibling be appointed executor and to contest to have that last will filed as valid are the super important first part of the litigation process. Good luck!
Today my dad & I met w Atty handling mom’s Will/Succession. He’s also my personal Atty & a friend. He did my Will, dad’s will & mom’s previous wills. I verbally informed him I was contesting the Will. I have found several errors in mom’s Will. Here’s a list them; 1.On the top of first page where it says, “Last Will & Testament of”the name used there is NOT the name my mother went by. She never went by that name. 2.There are variations in mom’s signatures throughout the Will. Some signatures are below the signature line, over the signature line itself or slant downwards past signature line. 3.Her middle initial is S NOT E. Some of her signatures have S for her middle initial others have E. One signature had E written over S. This particular error, I think, should have been initialed by my mom when corrected like the written error in the Will that had a line drawn thru it & initialed by my mom. 3.This may not be worth mentioning but, there is a paragraph in the Will concerning mom’s life insurance policy. Mom had a brother (POA) as the beneficiary for this policy. When mom went thru Medicaid’s spend down period in 2018, that policy was cashed out & the money spent. So why was this in her last Will? My brother w POA knew that policy & money no longer existed. I’m not sure if mom knew her policy had been cashed in. Why even mention something that hasn’t existed for 5yrs? My siblings never explained the Medicaid application process or anything Medicaid related to mom. I tried, but she never believed me. Also, my BIL signed her Will as a witness. 4. Mom left instructions in the Will as to what name she wanted on her headstone. It’s the same name she went by every day, NOT the name printed at the top of the first page of her Will & not the name my siblings chose for her headstone. Her request was not carried out. My siblings, their spouses AND the notary didn’t notice all these errors,(I’m so glad I did!!) but signed it anyway. It makes me wonder if the signatures on the Will were done legally.
I could be a forced heir. The LA law uses the word incapacitated w forced heirship. I’m not incapacitated. The same law also includes having an inherited incurable disease. I have a few of those.
Additional drama w this Will is that both my mother & my brother with POA told my dad (mom & dad have been divorced since 1993) he would be reimbursed for all his expenses on the home & property plus be given the adjoining lot to the property the house is built on. This is why dad & I went to see the atty together. Dad’s been paying the mortgage, taxes, home repairs, tree removal & clean up after hurricanes, flood insurance, replaced the front stairs ($14,000) & much more. He estimates he’s spent about $125,000. I think it’s more. He told me he was trying to save the estate for his 4 children so we would have an inheritance from our mother. He has documentation for all of his expenses. POA & another brother are executors of the Will. Neither one has contacted dad about the debt the estate owes him or the adjoining lot that was legally transferred to him by mom. I don’t think my siblings have a clue about the tranfer of the property. I just found out today. I don’t know all the details. I’ve seen an unsigned copy of the legal documents for the transfer. Today my dad changed his Will & POA. I’m the only heir!! Surprise bros & sis!! I’m back!!
But is an overall pattern: You will within 3-8 months after DoD receive a large envelope from States MERP system. May be sent certified. Pretty straightforward with no sympathies letter of “you were listed as contact person for ABC who died 2/6/24; we have determined $198,765.00 is owed for all costs paid by Louisiana Medicaid” & in the letter will be info as how to pay the $198,765. If mom was 5 years will be quite a lot of $$$ that will be the “bill”. It is not warmly sent condolences; its is very much how a debt collection company runs correspondence.
It might be a first quick reading can be taken that you, yes you, owe this $. You do NOT, it is a debt of the Estate of the deceased.
Letter is actually a NOI aka a Notice of Intent by the State or its outside contractor to let person addressed be aware that MERP exists, $ owed. & packet has questionnaire enclosed. ? are about evaluation for a required attempt for Estate Recovery against Estate AND who heirs are. I’m not an attorney but I have been told by attys that NOI is a required legal as first step in the MERP process.
The questionnaire is very - SUPER VERY - time sensitive for completion to be filled out & submitted, as answers enables MERP to determine how recovery will be handled. Fwiw I’ve been told response rate is maybe 30/40%… that whomever gets it either doesn’t bother or family is too bereaved or it goes to a bad address. If not responded 2, lein or claim gets placed.
But I digress…. Within questionnaire will be ?s on now deceased financials & assets. Like bank account balance on her DOD and you attach bank statement from mo. of death; ?s on value on her home so u attach last Tax Assessor bill; ? like balance of the NH resident personal needs trust account, if she had any life insurance, what funeral costs were, yada yada…… plus a copy of her will. All the $ oriented ?s r abt determining a quick Cost/Benefit analysis to do recovery. Should be a ? if you are planning on opening probate. AND importantly will be a question as to exemptions or exclusions to Recovery.
This is where you put in that you were a caregiver at least 2 sequential years prior to her going into a NH and you lived in her home during these years with no other job AND also that you are disabled heir to her Estate with no other heirs as per her will. (hopefully only 1 heir otherwise will be sticky) And as such you feel eligible for an exclusion &/or exemption to MERP based on State of Louisiana Medicaid regulations.
I cannot stress enough how important responding in a timely manner is. Because if you don’t, State kinda has to take the path that recovery is to be done with nothing as a hurdle (exemptions, exclusions, probate) to whatever approach LA is now doing (new Gov so new approach 2 social safety net than what JBL did).
Will be follow up mailings with their own questions related to why you think you have exemption or exclusions. These too time sensitive to send back. Could be need to provide paperwork that establishes that you are disabled (like got SSDI). For caregiver one, then your DL better have been moms address for years with no other job….. and you may - MAY - have to get on letterhead statement from her old MD or SW that she was “at need” for significant assistance in her home from 200whatever to 200whatever. Good luck on all this as will need timely response with documentation.
Please pls heed what JoAnn wrote on paying property items. Especially pay property taxes. Realize as mom is dead, homestead exemption is gone & assessor will send out much higher tax bill for this years shortfall which needs to be paid asap so not delinquent. Incoming tax bill will also be higher and stay that way till ownership changed.
You say you were a child care giver? If you were not a caregiver to your Mom you may not have an exemption.
This isn't DIY (do it yourself) stuff. This is crucial to your ability to stay in your Mom's home, so it must be handled by an attorney.
I wish you the best.
Personally I think the first steps in this are DIY as far as the basic response to the NOI and the questionnaire are concerned. As the old POA is the one who has all the information needed to fill out and answer the questionnaire. An attorney is not going to have the items needed… so the heir will end up having to suss out the info anyways. I’d do the NOI / questionnaire response first and THEN if the State or the outside contractor for MERP becomes difficult well then you get a MERP savvy attorney to step in. And if there is a house or land, seems to be the suggestion will be to open probate as then everything moves into probate laws and changes the gameboard entirely.
A long time caregiver or a disabled heir might not have been working + making $ for quite a while so might not have 5K to upfront pay any type of attorney for representation. So doing first steps as DIY on time and with documentation may need to be the path taken.
Its only been a month since Mom passing. I would call the NH and ask if they got paperwork yet from Recovery or have asked for Moms contact's information so paperwork could be sent to you. When I had not heard anything in 3 months, I called Recovery. They told me they had not been informed of Moms death. Told them the house was upbfor sale and they needed to place that lien. I got the paperwork shortly after that call.
There is no need for a lawyer at this point. Just make sure all bills are paid and taxes. There is not much a lawyer can do if you haven't even filled out paperwork yet and been turned down.
Good luck!