Louisiana Medicaid Estate Recovery

Recovery in Louisiana works through the succession-estate system rather than a broad, one-size-fits-all recovery rule. Louisiana Revised Statutes section 46:153.4 directs LDH to run an estate-recovery program and to recover mandated medical-assistance payments from a recipient's succession estate, with LDH's claim treated as a privilege against that estate carrying priority equal to an expense of last illness.

That statutory language matters because it frames recovery specifically in succession-estate terms, not as a sweeping claim against every kind of nonprobate interest a person might hold. No title arrangement should be assumed to sidestep recovery automatically; the real answer depends on the property involved, the succession proceeding, the applicable administrative rules, and the specific facts of the case.

LDH's own long-term-care materials explain that federal law requires recovery after the death of anyone who received Medicaid-funded long-term care or HCBS, along with related hospital and prescription-drug services, once they were 55 or older when the services were received. LDH points to federal law, Louisiana law, its administrative rules, and the State Plan as the combined sources governing the program.