Michigan Medicaid Estate Recovery

Quick answer: Michigan limits Medicaid estate recovery to assets that pass through probate. The exception: if you got a Long-Term Care Partnership asset disregard, Michigan can pursue recovery against all of your assets.

Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services defines the recoverable estate, for Medicaid purposes, as property and other assets that pass from a deceased Medicaid beneficiary to heirs through probate. That's a meaningfully narrower scope than states with expanded recovery rules.

There is one notable exception: for a beneficiary who received an asset disregard under the Long-Term Care Partnership Program, Michigan can pursue recovery against all of that person's assets, regardless of whether they passed through probate. That exception is exactly why Lady Bird deeds and Partnership-qualified insurance both matter so much to Michigan home planning.