Oregon Medicaid Estate Recovery

ODHS is upfront that estate recovery can require the estate of someone who received Medicaid services or General Assistance to repay certain benefits after death. Both ODHS and the Oregon Health Authority may be required to recover money spent on a person's care, and the Estate Administration Unit is the office that files those claims.

Oregon's statute (ORS chapter 416) authorizes recovery of correctly paid medical assistance for a recipient who was 55 or older when the assistance was provided, or for a recipient of any age who was permanently institutionalized in a nursing facility, an ICF/IID, or another medical institution. The law also bars adjustment or recovery until after a surviving spouse dies, and while there's a surviving child under 21 or a surviving child who is blind or permanently and totally disabled.

The recoverable estate here is defined broadly — it includes real and personal property and interests conveyed by joint tenancy, survivorship, life estate, living trust, and similar arrangements, not just the assets that pass through probate. That's the direct reason a TOD deed alone doesn't close off recovery risk in Oregon.