Maine Medicaid estate recovery can reach a parent's house after death, even one held in a life estate or living trust, when MaineCare paid for long-term care at age 55 or older.

How Does Maine Medicaid Estate Recovery Work?

Every state Medicaid program is required by federal law to run an estate recovery program. The mandate is codified at 42 U.S.C. 1396p(b), and it applies in every state, Maine included.

After a MaineCare recipient dies, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) may file a claim against the estate to recover what Medicaid paid for that person's long-term care. The rule that governs this is the MaineCare Benefits Manual, Chapter VII, Section 5 (10-144 C.M.R. Chapter 101). Recovery happens only after death, and Maine will not enforce a claim while the recipient leaves a surviving spouse, a surviving child under 21, or a surviving adult child who is blind or permanently and totally disabled.

Maine does not limit recovery to assets that pass through probate court. Its estate definition is broader than the federal minimum, and that difference decides whether a particular asset is at risk.

Who Is Subject to Maine Medicaid Estate Recovery

Maine asserts a claim after death when the recipient was fifty-five (55) years of age or older when they received MaineCare benefits. Since November 24, 2021, the claim is limited to the amount MaineCare paid for nursing facility services, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug services on that person's behalf.

The age-55 rule is the one most families meet, but it is not the only trigger. Section 5.03 also lets DHHS claim against the estate of a recipient of any age who owned undisclosed property that would have made them ineligible, and against a recipient whose long-term care was also covered by a long-term care insurance policy. That insurance trigger does not apply to the extent a qualifying Long-term Care Insurance Partnership policy paid benefits. So a person who received services before turning 55 is not subject on the age basis, but could still face a claim on one of the other two.

What MaineCare paid for Counted in the age-55 claim?
Nursing facility services received at 55 or older Yes
Home and community-based services received at 55 or older Yes
Related hospital and prescription drug services received at 55 or older Yes
Other MaineCare services No
Services received before age 55 No, unless another trigger applies

These limits reflect the claim cap Maine adopted effective November 24, 2021.

What MaineCare Can Recover From

Under Section 5.02-5 of the rule, Maine's estate includes both the probate estate, as defined in Maine's Probate Code at 18-C M.R.S. Section 1-201, and any other property in which the recipient held a legal interest at death. That second category reaches assets that pass outside probate, which is where Maine departs from probate-only states.

Assets Maine can reach include real estate titled solely in the recipient's name, bank and investment accounts in the sole name of the recipient, and a set of non-probate assets that many families assume are safe:

  • A life estate the recipient retained, valued using the life-estate table in Appendix E to Chapter 332 of the MaineCare Eligibility Manual
  • Assets held in a living trust
  • Accounts that pass by survivorship
  • Joint tenancy in personal property, such as a jointly titled bank account or vehicle
  • A share held as tenants in common, including a share of a house, which the rule reaches even though it leaves out joint tenancy in real property

The rule's one carve-out is joint tenancy in real property. Maine's rule expressly excludes jointly held interests in real property from the estate, so a home owned by the recipient and another person in joint tenancy is not reached on that basis. Maine's estate recovery statute, 22 M.R.S. §14(2-I), adds one more exclusion the rule does not mention: unless the federal Social Security Act requires otherwise, a qualified ABLE account is not part of the estate.

A long-term care insurance policy can also shield part of the estate. Under Section 5.09, if assets were disregarded when the recipient qualified for MaineCare because they were covered by a long-term care insurance policy, as a Long-term Care Insurance Partnership policy allows, DHHS will not recover from the estate for the amount disregarded. That amount equals the total insurance benefits paid to or on behalf of the recipient.

If you have read elsewhere that Maine is a probate-only state, that is the federal minimum rather than Maine's actual rule. Federal law sets probate assets as the floor and lets each state choose to reach further. Maine has chosen to reach further, in Section 5.02-5 of its own rule. Because this is where the most common planning assumptions go wrong, it is worth confirming the title and beneficiary status of each asset with an elder law attorney rather than relying on a general rule of thumb.

Who Is Protected From Estate Recovery

Federal law builds in categorical protections that every state must honor, and Maine restates them in its own rule. These are legal blocks on enforcement, not discretionary waivers you have to apply for.

Maine's rule says a claim will not be enforced until the deceased recipient has no surviving dependent, and it defines a dependent as any of the following:

  • A surviving spouse.
  • A surviving child under age 21.
  • A surviving adult child who is blind or permanently and totally disabled. The child must be blind or determined to be disabled at the time DHHS seeks recovery, which the rule fixes as the earlier of the date of DHHS's claim notice to the estate's representative or known family members or heirs, or the date DHHS files a claim in Probate Court.

Notice the word "until." These protections hold off enforcement; the rule does not say they erase the claim. The rule also lets DHHS assert its claim against the estate of the recipient or the recipient's beneficiary. So when a surviving spouse is what is holding the claim back, it is worth asking an elder law attorney how the claim could be pursued once there is no longer a surviving dependent, and planning for that.

How to Request a Hardship Waiver in Maine

Maine's statute requires DHHS to waive an age-55 claim when enforcement would create an undue hardship, or when the cost of collection would likely exceed the amount recovered. The waiver does not reach a claim based on undisclosed assets or on long-term care insurance benefits. Maine attaches concrete financial criteria to the hardship standard, which makes it easier to know in advance whether you are likely to qualify.

To qualify, an applicant has to meet each of these conditions:

  • Who can apply. A son or daughter of the recipient, or any other adult age 18 or older.
  • A beneficial interest in the estate. You must prove it through a will or the law of intestate succession. A partner with neither must document five consecutive years of living with the recipient before the recipient's most recent MaineCare eligibility, significant support for the household and the estate property during that time, and that the two of you presented yourselves to the public as married or in a civil union.
  • Dependence on the estate's assets, shown one of two ways. Either the estate assets are part of a business, including a working farm, that you depended on for your livelihood and whose recovery would take away your sole means of livelihood, or your combined household income and asset level is less than 180% of the Federal Poverty Income level.
  • The $10,000 limit. If lack of income is the only basis for your request and selling the estate's real property would net you more than $10,000, Maine will not find undue hardship.
  • The home test. If the asset you want to keep is the house, you must also show it was your primary residence for at least two years immediately before the death, that you contributed significantly to its upkeep, and that you and the recipient both understood it to be home for you both.

Two more limits shape how a family should apply. A waiver covers only your own share of the estate, so if your beneficial interest is less than 100%, DHHS reduces the waiver to match it. And only one waiver, either undue hardship or the care-given waiver below, is granted per estate.

There is also a separate care-given exemption. It can apply if your current income is below 200% of the Federal Poverty Income level for your household size, and you provided health-maintenance activities or personal care services to the recipient during part or all of the two years immediately before the recipient's death or entry into an institution, letting the recipient stay at home and avoid institutional care for an equivalent period. In that case, MaineCare may exempt a portion of the estate from recovery.

You need corroborating statements from the recipient's primary care physician or another approved medical care provider acceptable to MaineCare. Care you were paid for, in money or otherwise, does not count.

The exemption is capped, and it can never exceed what MaineCare paid that would otherwise be recovered:

  • Up to $32,000 a year, prorated for each month of approved care, is the largest cap in the rule. Ask DHHS which level of care it requires.
  • Up to $12,000 a year where the recipient received approved care for three or more health-maintenance or personal care activities every day.
  • Up to $6,000 a year where the recipient received that care at least three times a week.
  • If you qualify at more than one level, the highest amount is granted.

You must request an undue hardship waiver within six months of the recipient's death or within sixty days of the notice of the claim, whichever is later. A waiver will not be granted if assets were diverted to defeat recovery, and if DHHS asks for documents and you do not provide them within sixty days, the request may be denied. DHHS must decide within ninety days of receiving everything it asked for, in writing. A denial must explain how to appeal to the Department's Administrative Hearings Unit. Under Section 5.11, the decision becomes final unless you send DHHS a written request for agency review within thirty days of the date of the decision. That review is conducted through the Department's Office of Administrative Hearings, and if you disagree with its final decision, you may appeal to the Superior Court. An elder law attorney can help you assemble the financial documentation the rule requires.

How to Respond If You Receive a Claim

A claim notice often arrives while a family is still grieving, and it is fine to take a day before you read it closely. Just don't set it aside for long, because the deadlines below run from the death or the notice. When a MaineCare recipient dies, DHHS may send a recovery claim notice to the estate's legally authorized representative or to known family members or heirs. Don't count on that notice arriving, though: under Maine's rule, a lack of notice does not bar recovery. Working through a claim in order keeps you from missing a defense or a deadline.

1
Step 1

Confirm whether a family protection applies

Maine will not enforce the claim while there is a surviving dependent: a surviving spouse, a surviving child under 21, or a surviving adult child who is blind or determined to be disabled at the time DHHS seeks recovery. This is the first thing to check.

2
Step 2

Verify the services in the claim

Request an itemized accounting and confirm that an age-55 claim covers only nursing facility services, home and community-based services, and related hospital and prescription drug services received at 55 or older. Federal law bars a state's optional recovery of other services from reaching Medicare cost-sharing paid for Medicare Savings Program enrollees.

3
Step 3

Check how each asset is titled

Because Maine reaches life estates, living trusts, survivorship accounts, and personal-property joint tenancy, do not assume a non-probate asset is safe. Confirm which assets fall under the joint-tenancy-in-real-property carve-out and which do not.

4
Step 4

Assess whether a hardship waiver applies,

using either dependence route (a business or working farm you relied on, or combined household income and assets below 180% of the Federal Poverty Income level) and the six-month or sixty-day deadline above.

5
Step 5

Respond within the stated deadline

Waiting can cost you the hardship waiver, whose window closes six months after the death or sixty days after the notice, whichever is later. A separate request to reduce the claim under Section 5.10 runs on a shorter clock: six months from the death or thirty days from the claim notice, whichever is later. If the claim can be enforced, the rule also requires the department to offer heirs a voluntary payment arrangement acceptable to it, such as a payment plan or promissory note. Contact an elder law attorney promptly once a claim notice arrives.

Your next step Start with MaineCare Member Services. Call MaineCare Member Services at 1-800-977-6740 with questions about the MaineCare services listed in a claim. For the claim itself, use the contact details on the DHHS claim notice, and send any hardship waiver or agency review request in writing. A written denial of a hardship waiver must explain how to appeal it. If a waiver is denied, our guide to Maine Medicaid appeals and fair hearings explains the hearing process. Respond to any claim notice before its stated deadline, and consider consulting a Maine elder law attorney once a notice arrives.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will MaineCare take my parent's house?

It depends on how the house is titled and who survives the recipient. Maine will not enforce the claim while there is a surviving spouse, a surviving child under 21, or a surviving adult child who is blind or permanently and totally disabled. If the home is held in joint tenancy with another person as real property, Maine's rule excludes it from the estate. A share held as tenants in common is different: Maine's rule reaches it. And unlike in probate-only states, Maine can reach a home that passes through a life estate or a living trust, so a family should confirm the exact title rather than assume the house is safe. Even when the claim can be enforced, DHHS must give heirs the chance to pay it through a voluntary payment arrangement, so selling the house is not the only way to settle it.

Does Maine put a lien on the house while my parent is still alive?

Maine's estate recovery rule works after death, as a claim against the estate. A lien during life is a separate federal authority: 42 U.S.C. 1396p(a)(1)(B) lets a state place a lien on the real property of a recipient who is an inpatient in a nursing facility or other medical institution and who, after notice and an opportunity for a hearing, is found unable to reasonably be expected to be discharged and return home. No such lien may be placed on the home while a spouse, a child under 21 or blind or permanently and totally disabled, or a sibling with an equity interest who lived there for at least a year before the admission is lawfully living in it, and the lien dissolves if the person is discharged and returns home. Whether DHHS has used that authority in a particular case is a question for the agency, so ask DHHS rather than assuming the home is or is not encumbered.

Can my parent transfer the house to avoid estate recovery?

Transfers during the recipient's lifetime are governed by Maine's 60-month look-back, which is a separate rule from estate recovery. An uncompensated transfer within that window can create a penalty period of MaineCare ineligibility, and the caregiver-child exception under 42 U.S.C. 1396p(c)(2)(A)(iv) may protect a transfer of the home to a child who lived there for at least two years before the parent entered institutional care and who, as the state determines, provided care that let the parent stay at home. Maine also refuses a hardship waiver where assets were shifted to defeat recovery, so transfer planning belongs with an elder law attorney.

What assets does Maine actually recover from?

The probate estate plus non-probate assets such as life estates, living trusts, survivorship accounts, and joint tenancy in personal property, but not joint tenancy in real property. See "What MaineCare Can Recover From" above for the full list.

How do I request a hardship waiver in Maine?

Apply within six months of the recipient's death or sixty days of the claim notice, whichever is later, and show that you depend on the estate's assets: either they are part of a business or working farm you relied on for a living, or your combined household income and assets are below 180% of the Federal Poverty Income level. If lack of income is your only basis and selling the estate's real property would net you more than $10,000, Maine will not find undue hardship. To keep the house, you also need to show it was your primary residence for two or more years immediately before the death, that your contribution to its upkeep was significant, and that you and the recipient both understood it to be home for you both. A denial must be in writing and explain how to appeal. The decision is final unless you send DHHS a written request for agency review within thirty days of the date of the decision.

Learn More

MedicaidMaine Medicaid: A Guide for Seniors and FamiliesMaine Medicaid 2026: $2,000 asset limit plus $8,000 savings exclusion, medically needy spend-down, $40 PNA, spousal protections, estate recovery, how to apply. MedicaidHow to Apply for Maine MedicaidHow to apply for Maine Medicaid (MaineCare) in 2026: online via My Maine Connection, by mail, e-mail, or fax, or in person. Documents, spend-down, and appeals. MedicaidMaine Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment RulesMaine Medicaid spousal impoverishment 2026: a CSRA up to $162,660, the $2,705.00 monthly income floor the at-home spouse is lifted to, and the home rules. MedicaidMaine Medicaid Appeals and Fair HearingsHow to appeal a MaineCare denial, reduction, or termination, keep your services during the appeal, and request a Maine Medicaid fair hearing within 60 days.

Find personalized help understanding MaineCare estate recovery at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.

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