---
title: "Maine Medicaid Estate Recovery | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/maine/medicaid-estate-recovery/
description: "Maine's expanded estate definition reaches several nonprobate interests, with statutory family protections and waiver routes."
last_updated: 2026-10-20
author: George A. Mellendorf, CLTC, LTCP (Central States Insurance Services, Inc.)
publisher: Funding LTC Marketplace
note: Educational content; not legal, tax or financial advice. Markdown copy of the HTML page at the URL above.
---
Maine · Estate Recovery

# Maine Medicaid Estate Recovery

Last updated 2026-10-20

MaineCare's estate-recovery process is federally required — the state seeks reimbursement from a deceased recipient's estate for specific long-term-care and related medical costs. Maine's own published materials identify nursing-facility services, home- and community-based services, related hospital services, and related prescription drugs as the categories subject to this recovery.

What makes Maine notably different from a conventional probate-only approach is Title 22 §14, which defines "estate" to include not just probate property but also any other real or personal property in which the recipient held a legal interest at death — explicitly naming property passing through tenancy in common, survivorship, a life estate, a living trust, or joint tenancy in personal property. The one specific carve-out: the statute excludes joint tenancy in real property from that expanded definition.

## Sources and official resources

- [Maine DHHS: MaineCare for Older Adults and Adults with Disabilities](https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/oms/mainecare-options/older-adults-and-adults-with-disabilities)
- [U.S. Code: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p (liens, estate recovery, transfers of assets, Partnership disregard)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396p)

Rules and figures change. Confirm current details with the agency before you act.

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