DHS describes estate recovery as the mechanism through which county and Tribal agencies pursue reimbursement from a deceased MA recipient's estate, or in some cases a surviving spouse's estate, for costs the program covered. This can reach someone who was 55 or older when receiving MA long-term services and supports, as well as, under certain conditions, someone who was permanently living in a medical institution regardless of age.
What sets Minnesota apart is how far its definition of 'estate' stretches. Rather than sticking to a conventional probate estate, the statute — Minnesota Statutes section 256B.15 — pulls in probate property alongside life estates, survivorship interests, particular accounts, and assets that transferred via survivorship, a living trust, or a transfer-on-death deed or title. That expanded reach is exactly why any nonprobate title strategy in Minnesota needs its own careful recovery analysis rather than an assumption that avoiding probate is enough.
A statutory undue-hardship waiver process exists for families facing recovery, giving some avenue for relief when repayment would create genuine hardship.
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