My mother died 8 months ago in a nursing home and I mailed them the survey that they requested. I haven't heard anything back yet. I would like to close mother's account, but I don't dare to until I get notice from them. She didn't own a home and she has about $14,000 in a checking account. I thought that it would be quick since she didn't own any real estate.
I called Medicaid when I got no paperwork asking to be reimbursed. Mom had a house. They sent me the paperwork that I filled out. I received a letter telling me that a lean was placed on the house. It was satisfied when the house sold.
Hopefully u kept a copy of the paperwork. There should be a number to call. Hope you sent it certified. It takes u being on top of things to get it done. I sent an email to a state Department a week ago and have gotten no response that it was received.
The NOI (notice of intent) you got - in all likelihood- came from the outside contractor that TX Medicaid uses for MERP/ Estate Recovery. Does the correspondence read “Texas Estates” or HMS? Postmarked DFW / Irving Area? If so, those mailings are coming from the contractor. In my experience they will continue to send letters &/ or call & do this often unless there is something specific that moves the file into another level - like probate opened or something that kicks it back to the state to review or the value of the estate doesn’t meet the federal cost benefit requirements for recovery to go forward. Otherwise the outside contractor imo basically follow the debt collections playbook & will contact often.
Like if you open probate, then the whatever’s shift into how probate is done. Which for TX is a Level of Claim by Class for debts against the estate & required filed timely & appropriately at the courthouse.
OR
there was something in the answers in that questionnaire that kicked the file back to Medicaid & state employees to deal with. Like if the elder had a life insurance policy that named their Estate as beneficiary, those get dealt with by state staff not the contractor & State has a legal dept based in Austin that deals with that. OR there was something in the answers that posed a Medicaid eligibility issue, & those seem to get dealt with by state staff in Medicaid office in Lubbock that do appeals and more involved eligibility issues.
TX LTC Medicaid has 2K maximum in nonexempt assets for eligibility. Whenever her application was filed, she was at or under 2k.
How did it grow to 14k? Imo that answer will determine who to talk to.
If she got some sort of windfall & it wasn’t reported to Medicaid in a timely manner, well in the words of the handsome & talented Ricky Richardo..... “Lucy ju got esplainin’ to do”....
so where did 14K come from?