[zombienote: This is one fine "how-do-you-do"]
Estate Recovery Program Begins May 1, 2006
Georgia's Medicaid Estate Recovery Program, as defined in the Rules of Department of Community Health Medical Assistance Chapter 111-3-8 will begin May 1, 2006. Estate recovery is a program, mandated by federal law, whereby Medicaid members with qualified assets reimburse the taxpayers for long term care and home and community based services provided through Medicaid. Funds are recovered from the member's estate, after death, for the cost of these services.
The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1993 requires states to develop and implement an estate recovery program.
Georgia is one of the last states in the United States to implement an estate recovery program.
Medicaid members who may be affected by estate recovery include:
* Members of any age who reside in a nursing facility, intermediate care facility for the mentally retarded, or other medical institution and have been determined permanently institutionalized.
* Members who are age 55 or older and who receive nursing home or home and community-based services.
Current members who qualify for estate recovery have until March 31, 2006 to "opt out" and not be subject to estate recovery. To "opt out" of the Medicaid program, contact your local DFCS office to notify them of your desire to withdraw from the Medicaid program. Individuals who apply for Medicaid and who may be subject to estate recovery will be advised of this program prior to determination as Medicaid eligible.
Expenses incurred by Medicaid on or after August 1, 2001, for any service provided in a long-term care facility or in the home, when provided as an alternative to institutionalization. These services include nursing facility services, personal care services, home and community-based services, hospital services and prescription drug services.
The heirs may seek a hardship waiver from estate recovery if recovery of assets will show, through clear and convincing evidence, that such action subjects them to undue hardship.
For more information, contact Georgia's Medicaid Estate Recovery Office at 770-916-0328.
From a Georgia Newspaper -
Estates in Medicaid crosshairs
The state will start tapping the estates of dead Medicaid patients May 1 to recoup the cost of their medical care.
"We were hoping this would never come to pass," said Debbie Studdard, director of the Area Agency on Aging of Northwest Georgia. "It's going to be a hard choice for some people."
The estate recovery program will apply to Medicaid recipients of all ages who are permanently institutionalized or live in nursing homes or intermediate-care facilities for the mentally retarded. It also applies to recipients who are 55 and older who receive nursing home or home- and community-based services.
Letters went out last week to notify them that they have until March 31 to opt out of the services or their estates will be charged for all expenses incurred by Medicaid as of Aug. 1, 2001.
Studdard could not say Friday how many local people the new initiative will affect, but she voiced concern about the fate of the Community Cares Services Program. The growing and successful Medicaid waiver program provides help ranging from adult day care to medically related transportation and light housekeeping to older and disabled residents.
"This program keeps people in their homes, which is a lot less expensive than putting them in a nursing home," she said.
"But," Studdard continued, "people are going to be reluctant to apply out of fear they might lose their homes."
The "estate" in the estate recovery program includes a recipient's home and any other personal property and promissory notes. Estates valued at less than $25,000 are exempt, and heirs can request a delay if there is a surviving spouse, a disabled adult child or a child younger than 21 years old.
In addition to recovering money from an estate, the rules also allow the state to place a lien on the home of a Medicaid recipient in a nursing home if the person has received at least six consecutive months of care and "there is no reasonable expectation" that the person will return home.
"We haven't started getting calls on this yet, but we will," Studdard said.
Georgia and Michigan are the only states that have not implemented an estate-recovery program as mandated by a 1993 federal law, and Michigan could adopt legislation as early as this year. Failure to do so could result in the federal government withholding Medicaid money.
Georgia lawmakers approved the collection in 2004, but public outcry temporarily put the program on hold.
The Department of Community Health notified agencies in early February that the program will begin in the spring.
MEDICAID ESTATE RECOVERY PROGRAM
Effective May 1, the Georgia Department of Community Health will begin recovering Medicaid money paid out for long-term care from the recipient's estate.
Estates valued at less than $25,000 are exempt, and recovery can be delayed when there is a surviving spouse, young children or a disabled adult child.
For more information visit the DCH Web site at www.communityhealth.state.ga.us/ or call the Estate Recovery Office at 770-916-0328.
[zombienote: This may be old news for most since it appears Georgia is the last state to implement this program. But it's likely that many people might not even know about it unless they have been personally impacted by it.
About 99% of my job depends on disabled people with Medicaid Waivers so I have learned quite a bit about it but have never really heard of this program.
One of the main piecesof paperwork we generate is called the Individualized Support Plan, or ISP. This is supposed to be a cataloging on the recipient's needs and desires and dream.
It's also necessary for evidencing to Medicaid reviewers that intended services are delivered as stated.
Recently, just before the company responsible for the ISP and waiver program lost it's contract, the ISP form changed. The "Benefits" section used to be in the back, a place to log SSI income and other income sources. To the best of my remembrance that was all strictly voluntary. Most families I worked with opted to not provide it.
The new form has this on the 2nd page and I imagine soon they won't be able to opt it. They will have to declare this stuff - bank accounts and everything - if they want services that we as a people ahould be trying to get them by any means necessary.
The description of the Estate Recovery thing came to me in a work e-mail. It contained this:
If Medicaid has paid for the member's nursing home care for six (6) consecutive months or more, the state can place a lien on the member's home if there is no reasonable expectation that the member will return home and when none of the persons listed in the above paragraph are living in the home.
If the member disagrees with the placement of the lien, he/she will have
the right to request a hearing to show how the lien will result in an undue hardship to him/her. Also, if the member transferred real or personal property without adequate consideration, meaning for less than fair market value, a penalty will be applied and the member's eligibility may be affected.
The law requiring estate recovery was passed in 1993, but Georgia will limit its recovery to Medicaid monies that paid for the member's medical care beginning August 1, 2001.
The member may choose to withdraw from Medicaid, and if he/she does
so no later than March 31, 2006, for a disenrollment date of April 30, 2006, the member will not be subject to Estate Recovery.
However, if the member opts out of Medicaid and then reapplies and accepts any Medicaid services after this date, the member will be subject to full estate recovery back to 2001.
To opt out of the Medicaid program, the members must contact their local Department of Family and Children Services (DFCS).
I can never escape the impression the US Federal Government hates taking care of Americans who really and truly need it.
George Fucking Bush blew $1.6 Billion LYING to us - that money alone would have done many awesome things across America.
But No.
Give us your house when you are dead to replace the money we got from taxing you - or get lost.
And meanwhile......Team Bush's hatred of the poor knows absolutely no bounds.
As detailed above Medicaid is making people sign over their homes to get services, and Homeland Security is contacted if you try to pay too much of your debt off: now Team Bush wants to bury reporting about the poor in America - who number in the 10's of millions.
There are no words in English to begin to describe how horrible Team Bush and their enthusiatists are. Toilet film is a start.]
U.S. Plan to Eliminate Survey of Needy Families Draws Fire
by Abid Aslam | Common Dreams | 3.3.06
WASHINGTON - Researchers and legislators are rallying to block a Bush administration plan to scupper a U.S. survey widely used to improve federal and state programs for millions of low-income and retired Americans.
President George W. Bush's proposed budget for fiscal 2007, which begins this October, includes a Commerce Department plan to eliminate the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).
The proposal marks at least the third White House attempt in as many years to do away with federal data collection on politically prickly economic issues ranging from mass layoffs to employment discrimination.
Social scientists, public policy makers, and legislators helped thwart the previous administration plans, which had targeted the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Opponents of the plan to axe SIPP said they hoped for a similar success.
By mid-day Wednesday, some 415 liberal and conservative economists and social scientists had signed a letter to be sent to Congress Thursday urging that the survey be fully funded because it ''is the only large-scale survey explicitly designed to analyze the impact of a wide variety of government programs on the well being of American families.''
A group of Republicans and Democrats in the House of Representatives reportedly are leading a drive to get lawmakers to sign a similar letter defending the survey to be sent to the White House.
[snip]