Maryland Medicaid Estate Recovery

Maryland's current Medicaid recovery rule ties the word "estate" directly to Maryland probate law — it covers real and personal property and other assets that would be part of a person's probate estate. Notably, the regulation doesn't spell out a broader, non-probate definition, so this page treats Maryland as a probate-estate-recovery state rather than assuming every joint account, trust, life estate, or transfer-on-death arrangement automatically gets pulled in or automatically escapes recovery.

The Department is required to pursue recovery of correctly paid Medical Assistance benefits from the estate of anyone who was 55 or older when they received them, and it can also recover through liens tied to property sales under the regulation's rules. That means a home excluded from the eligibility calculation while someone was alive can still trigger a completely separate recovery analysis after death.

Maryland does build in protections. Recovery is postponed when a surviving spouse or certain children are involved, and the rule recognizes a narrow substantial-hardship exception when recovery would force a qualifying dependent out of the deceased person's home.