This text of Louisiana § 46:153.4 (Medicaid Estate Recovery, legislative findings) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
§153.4. Medicaid Estate Recovery, legislative findings
A. The Legislature of Louisiana finds:
(1)Louisiana has a long tradition of constitutional provisions and legislation
preserving the rights of descendants to inherit the immovable property of their ascendants
in the first degree. For nearly two hundred years, state laws required a portion of the estate
of residents to be inherited by the children of the deceased. In addition, Louisiana has sought
to ensure the inviolability of the right of home ownership to citizens of the state through
numerous state constitutions since 1864.
(2)Article XII, Section 9 of the Constitution of Louisiana, the substance of which
dates back to the Louisiana Constitution of 1879, guarantees an exemption from seizure and
sale of a homestead. The constitutio
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§153.4. Medicaid Estate Recovery, legislative findings
A. The Legislature of Louisiana finds:
(1) Louisiana has a long tradition of constitutional provisions and legislation
preserving the rights of descendants to inherit the immovable property of their ascendants
in the first degree. For nearly two hundred years, state laws required a portion of the estate
of residents to be inherited by the children of the deceased. In addition, Louisiana has sought
to ensure the inviolability of the right of home ownership to citizens of the state through
numerous state constitutions since 1864.
(2) Article XII, Section 9 of the Constitution of Louisiana, the substance of which
dates back to the Louisiana Constitution of 1879, guarantees an exemption from seizure and
sale of a homestead. The constitutionally recognized and statutorily implemented exemption,
originally enacted in 1880, provides a fifteen thousand dollar homestead exemption from sale
and seizure and provides a full exemption from sale and seizure for debts related to
catastrophic illness or injury.
B. The state of Louisiana must establish an estate recovery program in compliance
with Subchapter XIX of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1396p, as amended.
C. Therefore, the legislature declares that a comprehensive plan should be developed
to address the federal requirements for an estate recovery program while at the same time
recognizing the state's long tradition of protecting the citizens' rights to home ownership and
the state's interest in assuring the transfer of real property within family units.
D. The Louisiana Department of Health shall establish an estate recovery program
for the purpose of recovering medical assistance payments made on behalf of individual
recipients from the succession estates of those individuals. The department shall seek
recovery of medical assistance payments for only those instances mandated by Subchapter
XIX of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1396p, as amended. For purposes of this Section,
the claim of the department shall be considered a privilege on the succession estate, and shall
have a priority equivalent to an expense of last illness as prescribed in Civil Code Article
3252 et seq.
E. The department shall not seek recovery against the estate of a deceased recipient
of the amount of any benefits paid if the amount of the assistance to be recovered is
economically inappropriate in relation to the expenses of the recovery. The department shall
not institute estate recovery on the first fifteen thousand dollars or one-half the median value
of the homestead in each parish whichever is higher.
F.(1) The estate recovery efforts of the department shall be in accordance with
Subchapter XIX of the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1396p, as amended. The department
shall not take any action to recover in the case of undue hardship.
(2) An undue hardship to any heir, as defined by rule, shall exist if an heir’s family
income is three hundred percent or less of the applicable federal poverty guideline as
published in the Federal Register by the United States Department of Health and Human
Services.
(3) The department shall promulgate rules and regulations to implement the
provisions of this Section.
G. Such rules and regulations shall be in accordance with Subchapter XIX of the
Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. 1396p, as amended. The department is hereby authorized to
compromise, settle, or waive any recovery of medical assistance authorized by this Section
upon good cause shown. The department's recovery from the succession estate may be
reduced in consideration of reasonable and necessary expenses incurred by the recipient's
heirs, subsequent to the recipient's admission to a long-term care facility, in order to maintain
the homestead of the recipient, if the homestead is part of the succession estate.
H. To the extent that there is any conflict between the provision of this Section and
the standards that are specified by the secretary of the United States Department of Health
and Human Services, the federal standard shall prevail.