---
title: "Rhode Island Medicaid Estate Recovery | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/rhode-island/medicaid-estate-recovery/
description: "Rhode Island’s recovery lien is framed around assets included or includable in the probate estate, with statutory survivor and hardship protections."
last_updated: 2026-10-20
author: George A. Mellendorf, CLTC, LTCP (Central States Insurance Services, Inc.)
publisher: Funding LTC Marketplace
note: Educational content; not legal, tax or financial advice. Markdown copy of the HTML page at the URL above.
---
Rhode Island · Estate Recovery

# Rhode Island Medicaid Estate Recovery

Last updated 2026-10-20

Under Rhode Island General Laws section 40-8-15, Medicaid benefits paid on behalf of a recipient who was 55 or older can become a lien against that person's estate after death. The statute defines 'estate' as all real property, personal property, and other assets included or includable within the individual's probate estate — and the lien attaches to that property whether or not probate has actually opened.

Read strictly, this makes Rhode Island a probate-estate recovery state rather than one whose statute expressly names joint tenancy, life estates, or revocable trusts as fair game. The law does build in protections: a surviving spouse, a child under 21, and a blind or permanently and totally disabled child are shielded, and EOHHS is directed to maintain an undue-hardship waiver process. Estate representatives handling a decedent age 55 or older also carry a separate statutory duty to notify EOHHS.

## Sources and official resources

- [Rhode Island EOHHS: Long-Term Services and Supports](https://eohhs.ri.gov/consumer/health-care/long-term-services-and-supports)
- [U.S. Code: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p (liens, estate recovery, transfers of assets, Partnership disregard)](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1396p)

Rules and figures change. Confirm current details with the agency before you act.

[← Back to the full Rhode Island guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/rhode-island/)