Montana Medicaid Estate Recovery

Federal law requires Montana to pursue recovery of certain Medicaid payments after a recipient's death, and DPHHS applies this to nursing-home residents, people who lived in medical facilities or institutions, and anyone who was 55 or older when they received Medicaid-paid services.

Montana's recovery reach goes beyond the conventional probate estate. DPHHS policy defines the estate to include real and personal property owned at death plus property that passed automatically to beneficiaries at death — explicitly covering property reported through probate, property held in joint tenancy, and property held as tenancy in common. The agency's own consumer brochure adds property that sits outside probate altogether and property transferred by a beneficiary deed or quitclaim deed. Heirs facing recovery can request a waiver or reduction on undue-hardship grounds.