Who and what recovery rules cover
Delaware’s policy applies estate-recovery and lien rules to long-term-care applicants age 55 and older. It identifies nursing-facility services, home- and community-based waiver services, and community-based long-term-care services and supports; Medicaid Medicare-cost-sharing payments with dates of service on or after January 1, 2010 are excluded from recovery under the cited policy (Delaware covered services and recovery protections).
DHSS does not seek recovery after death while there is a surviving spouse, a qualifying surviving blind or disabled son or daughter who resided continuously in the home immediately before death, or a child under 21. The regulation also describes separate home-lien protections for a qualifying caregiving child and qualifying sibling, so a home should not be transferred or sold on the assumption that a general rule applies without checking the evidence and timing (Delaware recovery exceptions).
Hardship requests have published standards
Delaware’s published recovery policy describes undue-hardship relief for specified children, grandchildren, parents, and siblings who lived continuously in the recipient’s home for at least two years immediately before admission and meet a listed hardship condition. Examples include receiving government living-expense assistance with no other home, income at or below 200% of the monthly federal poverty limit plus limited convertible resources, or a jointly owned business property contributing to the relative’s livelihood (Delaware Estate Recovery Program rule).
The recovery notice includes a Request for Exclusion or Hardship Waiver and fair-hearing information. The published procedure says a written fair-hearing request must be submitted to the local DHSS office within 90 days of the action; a verified hardship is tracked for eight months, reflecting Delaware probate law’s eight-month estate-claim period (Delaware hardship and appeal procedure).
Delaware recovery caution: the estate definition is tied to Delaware probate law, but liens, creditor claims, deed terms, and statutory hardship rules can change the practical result. Preserve every notice and request assistance promptly (
Delaware LTC recovery policy).
For home-planning context, see The Home. An executor or heir facing a notice should contact DHSS and obtain Delaware legal advice before distributing estate assets.
Not mutually exclusive. Most families combine two or three funding pillars — this one rarely stands alone.
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