---
title: "Washington Medicaid Estate Recovery | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/washington/medicaid-estate-recovery/
description: "Washington’s expanded recovery law reaches estates and nonprobate assets, including certain life-estate and joint-tenancy interests."
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.
---
Washington · Estate Recovery

# Washington Medicaid Estate Recovery

Last updated 2026-10-20

**Quick answer:** Washington recovers Medicaid paid for care received at 55 or older from both the probate estate and nonprobate assets. It can also enforce a lien on a life estate or joint tenancy interest in real property.

Washington law calls for recovery of correctly paid medical assistance from a recipient's estate — and from nonprobate assets — once that person was 55 or older when the covered services were provided. What's recoverable spans nursing-facility care, home- and community-based services, related hospital and prescription-drug costs, and other categories the department designates.

That reach makes Washington an expanded-recovery state rather than a probate-only one. The department can also enforce a lien against a decedent's life-estate or joint-tenancy interest in real property, following specific valuation rules the statute lays out for those interests.

## Sources and official resources

- [Washington DSHS: Getting Started with Long-Term Care](https://www.dshs.wa.gov/adult-and-aging-services/getting-started-long-term-care)
- [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 Washington guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/washington/)