What costs and survivor protections are stated
DVHA says recovery may include Medicaid payments on or after January 1, 1994 for nursing-facility services, home-based long-term-care services, and related hospital and prescription-drug services. The notice says recovery waits until the surviving spouse has died and is not pursued while there is a surviving child under 21, blind, or permanently and totally disabled under the Social Security definition (DVHA recoverable-cost and survivor rules).
The same notice says DVHA will not seek recovery from estates below $2,000 or when it determines recovery would cause undue hardship under Medicaid Rule 7108.3. Do not confuse that $2,000 small-estate recovery threshold with the separate $2,000 MABD resource limit (DVHA estate-recovery thresholds).
Vermont publishes a homestead-hardship route
DVHA's estate-recovery page allows an heir to claim undue hardship before probate closes. It identifies a sibling who lived continuously in the home for at least one year immediately before the decedent began receiving long-term-care services, and a child who lived there for at least two years and provided care allowing the person to remain home, as separate homestead-exemption circumstances (DVHA hardship-exemption guidance).
The page also describes a homestead worth less than $250,000 inherited by a sibling or lineal heir, combined with either household income below 300% of the federal poverty level or proof of services or financial support that avoided or delayed long-term care at least six months. It names DVHA 13, 14, and 15 forms and says DVHA 13 accompanies either DVHA 14 or 15 (DVHA hardship forms and criteria).
Act promptly: an heir should raise a homestead hardship before the probate estate closes and submit the applicable DVHA forms and evidence. Estate recovery is a post-death issue, but the planning records are created long before death (
DVHA hardship process).
Planning implications
Estate recovery is only one home-planning consideration. A transfer may trigger a five-year long-term-care penalty, while a retained-power enhanced-life-estate deed has separate title and Medicaid questions. No document should be chosen solely because it appears to avoid probate (Vermont Law Help transfer guidance; Vermont Attorneys Title guidance).
A Vermont probate and elder-law attorney can determine what is in the probate estate, whether a statutory survivor or hardship protection applies, and how to respond to a DVHA claim.
Not mutually exclusive. Most families combine two or three funding pillars — this one rarely stands alone.
The
Journey Assessment ranks all ten pillars against your specific situation and
recommends the top three.
