---
title: "West Virginia Medicaid Estate Recovery | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/west-virginia/medicaid-estate-recovery/
description: "How West Virginia recovers Medicaid long-term care costs from a recipient's estate, and its protections for survivors and hardship cases."
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.
---
West Virginia · Estate Recovery

# West Virginia Medicaid Estate Recovery

Last updated 2026-10-20

West Virginia Code §9-5-11c gives the Department authority to file a claim or lien against the estate of someone who was 55 or older when they received Medicaid-funded nursing-facility care, home- and community-based services, or related hospital and prescription-drug services. The claim is capped at the total amount of assistance actually provided for those specific services — the state can't recover more than it paid.

BMS Chapter 900 spells out essentially the same scope in more procedural detail: it lays out how recovery works from the estates of certain deceased recipients and from property sold by permanently institutionalized recipients, capping recovery at what was actually paid for nursing-facility care, home- and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription costs. The manual's definition of "estate" covers real and personal property belonging to the decedent at death, including intangible interests — a reminder that how title is actually held matters, and that assuming a nonprobate arrangement automatically sidesteps recovery isn't a safe assumption.

## Sources and official resources

- [West Virginia BFA: Medicaid and Medicaid for Long Term Care](https://bfa.wv.gov/medicaid-and-medicaid-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 West Virginia guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/west-virginia/)