New York Medicaid Estate Recovery

Quick answer: Since December 6, 2011, New York has limited Medicaid estate recovery to the probate estate, for people who got Medicaid at 55 or older or were permanently institutionalized. Recovery is deferred while a spouse, a child under 21 or a blind or disabled child is living.

New York currently limits Medicaid estate recovery strictly to the probate estate. State guidance directs local districts not to pursue assets that pass outside of probate — a meaningfully narrower recovery scope than some other states allow.

This wasn't always the rule: New York had previously broadened its recovery definition, but that expansion was repealed, and the probate-only approach was restored effective December 6, 2011.

Recovery can reach people who received Medicaid at age 55 or older, or who were permanently institutionalized, according to the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General. But recovery is deferred entirely while a surviving spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child of any age is still living.

One important deadline: if a family wants to request a hardship waiver, it must be submitted within 30 days of the notice of intent to recover. Simply being unable to maintain a previous standard of living isn't, by itself, treated as hardship under state guidance.

Separately from probate recovery, a TEFRA lien can still be placed on a home during a Medicaid recipient's life. This applies when the recipient has been in a medical institution for six or more consecutive months and isn't expected to return home. That lien cannot be imposed, though, if a spouse or a child under 21 or a disabled child still lives in the home — and any lien already in place dissolves if the recipient is discharged and goes back home.