My mother recently passed away and the nursing home is going to send a check for her account balance and make it payable to her estate. She didn't have a checking account and I know Medicaid will eventually get the money so what do I do with the check in the meantime?
You might be surprised how quick Medicaid gets back to you. They always live to get money back.
The PNA would have been the $ ($35-$105 a mo) that was NOT require to be paid to the NH as her copay or SOC (share of cost) under Medicaid rules.
The NH will be under whatever your state has as financial rules on these accounts. For my mom & my mil - both on medicaid is TX - they died with $ in their PNA. For my mom, who was current on medicaid approval & reinbursement paid to the facility, $ was paid within a couple of months & made out to me as I was on file as financially responsible and as a signature on moms PNA account. I've kept moms bank account opened as it was POD to me & this $ went there to have banking $ as needed through the probate process. But for my mil, she was still in the Medicaid pending stage at the time of death, so that NH held the funds for way over a year till Medicaid approval & retro payments were finally cleared. Check when finally done was written out to BIL.
Medicaid can't ask for this $ back per se. They will have to go through the MERP or MERS process to get any assets of the estate of the medicaid receipient. If you do probate, then the recovery runs however your state does probate ( or small estates affidavit or muniments).
Whatever the case, most states have it such that the costs of funeral & burial are payable first & foremost from estate $. Like for TX, funeral is a class 1 claim, executor & estate admisintration are class 2 & 3 claims, while MERP is class 7, and assets are paid by order of class.
You may get a letter either from the state or from your states outside contractor for MERP or MERS, which will ask about the estate and it's assets to determine the recovery process that they will need to do. This is called a Letter of Intent (to file a claim or lien for medicaid estate recovery). Seem to be done within 4 - 5 mos of death if your state has HMS as the outside contractor for MERP. If your state still has its HHS or Dept of Aging is doing it, could be a year or more before letter of intent goes out. Sometimes no letter is sent, if mom had no exempt assets obvious in the medicaid application or renewal process. Be on the look out for this letter as you should respond to it to tie up any loose ends on moms Medicaid situation.
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