Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Utah
Medicare
If my mother still owns her home when she goes on medicare, will the Government take it and sell her home when she dies to pay back all the medical benifits she uses? If so,is this a nationwide policy or just depends on which state you live in? If she hasn't transfered it yet and is on medicare can she transfer it now? I've been told that it has to be taken out of her name before she goes on medicare. I thought medicare wasn't something that had to be paid back, that it was paid for by our medicare tax deductions.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Medicare
Medicare and other benefit providing agencies have the power to recoup their 'losses' on expenditures from the assets of the deceased, subject to some restrictions. Generally if a patient has incurred debt paid by medicare or other welfare agencies, those entities have the power to seek reimbursement from the assets of the patient. If the patient has no assets, then of course there is nothing from which the debts can be collected. Generally there is a 3 year 'look back' period for an agency to recover property which may have been transferred to an insider. Example, patient quit claims her home to a daughter. Two years later, after a long hospitalization the patient dies. The agency may reverse the transfer to the daughter (because such transfers are usually considered gifts - not a bona fide sale for fair compensation). The purpose behind medicare and other social welfare programs is to assist those without the means to care for themselves - not to provide free insurance regardless of circumstances.
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