My Mom died without a will and less than $3000. Will Medicaid take it?

H

homesteader50

New Member
Jurisdiction
Washington
If my mom passed away and had no will and only has $2700 approx in bank, and we file a Small Estate Affidavit, will Medicaid/Medicare have first dibs if she was receiving long term care (not nursing home, just medical expenses)

Background: My mom passed away without a will. This has caused many issues in terms of us trying to get reimbursed for the cost of our travel to her residence to move all of her belongings, paying for her cremation and so forth. (Money we could not afford to payout and thought we would be able to get back.)

She did not have any real estate, no vehicle, and has $1900 in her bank account with another $830 check which has been sent to me in her name for the rent deposit.

There is just my sister and I and my sister has agreed that any money that might come to us, would first come back to me to pay back all the expenses I have acquired.

I have been told to file a Small Estate Affidavit as I am not on my moms bank account as the Beneficiary. I thought, simple enough, but now I am being told that as she was on Medicaid or Medicare, (long term), that they will likely take the money and leave us with nothing to pay back costs we just incurred. Is this true and if so, should we even bother? This has already put us in financial hardship.
 
Presumably, costs associated with the funeral and disposition of bodily remains -- which are first priority claims -- will well exceed the small amount of money you mentioned, so Medicare/caid shouldn't be any issue.
 
homesteader50 said:
If my mom passed away and had no will and only has $2700 approx in bank, and we file a Small Estate Affidavit, will Medicaid/Medicare have first dibs if she was receiving long term care (not nursing home, just medical expenses)

Background: My mom passed away without a will. This has caused many issues in terms of us trying to get reimbursed for the cost of our travel to her residence to move all of her belongings, paying for her cremation and so forth. (Money we could not afford to payout and thought we would be able to get back.)

She did not have any real estate, no vehicle, and has $1900 in her bank account with another $830 check which has been sent to me in her name for the rent deposit.

There is just my sister and I and my sister has agreed that any money that might come to us, would first come back to me to pay back all the expenses I have acquired.

I have been told to file a Small Estate Affidavit as I am not on my moms bank account as the Beneficiary. I thought, simple enough, but now I am being told that as she was on Medicaid or Medicare, (long term), that they will likely take the money and leave us with nothing to pay back costs we just incurred. Is this true and if so, should we even bother? This has already put us in financial hardship.
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This question was answered for you last week on the other site you on.
 
homesteader50 said:
I have been told to file a Small Estate Affidavit as I am not on my moms bank account as the Beneficiary. I thought, simple enough, but now I am being told that as she was on Medicaid or Medicare, (long term), that they will likely take the money and leave us with nothing to pay back costs we just incurred. Is this true and if so, should we even bother?
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Please accept my condolences upon the recent loss of your mother.

Have you contacted social security and/or medicare to report your mother's death?

To report the death of a person with Medicare: Make sure you have the person's Social Security Number. You then need to call Social Security at 1-800-772-1213.

Social Security SHOULD notify Medicare of the death.

If the deceased was receiving Social Security payments, the payment for the month of the death must be returned to Social Security.

In most cases, the funeral home will report the person's death to SS. You must make sure you give the funeral home the deceased person's Social Security number if you want them to make the report.

Benefits end in the month of the beneficiary's death, regardless of the date, because under Social Security regulations a person must live an entire month to qualify for benefits. There is no prorating of a final benefit for the month of death. If Social Security pays the deceased's benefit for that month because it was not notified of the death in time, the survivors or representative payee will have to return the money Do You Have To Pay Back Social Security When Someone Dies? .
 
Thank you so much for your kind reply. Yes the SS office was notified within days and no further payments have been received. It appears after reading the booklet you suggested, the payment she received in Dec was for November so I believe all is straight there. Medicare was also informed. Appreciate your kindness and help.
 
homesteader50 said:
It appears after reading the booklet you suggested, the payment she received in Dec was for November
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On what date did your mother pass away?

The payment a SS beneficiary receives in November is for October.
The payment received in December is for November.

You're going to love what I type next.

This is where I read what I'll post.

If you wish, you can read the entire document.

https://www.ssa.gov/pubs/EN-05-10077.pdf

I've taken the liberty of extracting a relevant snippet.

This comes directly from the bureaucrats that administer Social Security:

When does Social Security stop after death?

Let us know if a person receiving Social Security benefits dies.

We can't pay benefits for the month of death.

That means if the person died in July, the check received in August (which is payment for July) must be returned.
 
She passed away in Dec and the payment she received was for Nov, correct? As we informed SS of her passing and she has not received any payments in January (which would have been for Dec I'm assuming) so everything is okay there . Thank you.
 
homesteader50 said:
She passed away in Dec and the payment she received was for Nov, correct? As we informed SS of her passing and she has not received any payments in January (which would have been for Dec I'm assuming) so everything is okay there . Thank you.
Click to expand...

It appears you've won a small battle against the beasts who plague our lives.

Good on you, mate.
 

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