The short answer: probably not. And if there is a recovery claim, it's narrower than most families fear.

Tennessee is one of the more member-friendly Medicaid estate recovery states in the country. TennCare says it must seek recovery from the estate when a deceased member received CHOICES long-term services and supports (LTSS) at age 55 or older, not when someone had TennCare only for routine medical care. Recovery runs against the estate as Tennessee probate law defines it under Tenn. Code Ann. § 71-5-116, so assets that pass outside probate, such as joint accounts, payable-on-death accounts, and properly-structured life estates, are generally beyond its reach. Tennessee also does not use TEFRA liens, the lifetime lien on the home that some states file, and where the claim is below $10,000 the State provides a release.

This guide walks through exactly who is subject to TennCare estate recovery, what's exempt, what hardship waivers are available, and the steps to take after a parent on TennCare passes away.

In This Guide

What Tennessee Medicaid Estate Recovery Is and Where the Rules Come From

Medicaid estate recovery is a federal program created by the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (OBRA '93) that requires every state to recover certain Medicaid spending from the estates of deceased members who received long-term care at age 55 or older, and from members of any age who were permanently institutionalized. The federal floor is at 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b), which mandates recovery for nursing facility services, home and community-based services (HCBS), and related hospital and prescription-drug services. Each state implements within that floor, with significant flexibility on what counts as an "estate" (some states limit recovery to probate assets, others reach non-probate assets like joint property and living trusts) and what hardship waivers are available.

In Tennessee, estate recovery is implemented under Tenn. Code Ann. § 71-5-116 and the TennCare State Plan Attachment 4.17-A.

Two important things to understand about how Tennessee implements the federal rule:

  1. Tennessee recovers from the estate as Tennessee probate law defines it, rather than writing the federal option to reach non-probate assets like jointly-held property, life insurance, and living trusts into its plan the way several other states do. As a practical matter, assets passing outside probate are generally beyond recovery, but the outer edge is set by Tennessee law rather than by a flat rule in the plan (see What Counts as the Estate in Tennessee), so families relying on a specific structure should confirm it with an elder-law attorney.
  2. Tennessee declines the federal option to place TEFRA liens on the home during the recipient's lifetime. Some states use lifetime liens to ensure they can collect after death; Tennessee does not.

These two choices put Tennessee among the more member-friendly states for estate recovery purposes.

Who Is Subject to Tennessee Medicaid Estate Recovery

This is the section most third-party content gets wrong. Tennessee's recovery scope is narrower than most families assume.

TennCare's stated recovery conditions Outside those conditions
Deceased TennCare members who received CHOICES Group 1, 2, or 3 LTSS at age 55 or older Deceased TennCare members who received only standard medical care (no LTSS)
Long-term nursing facility care under TennCare LTSS received before age 55
HCBS services under CHOICES Group 2 or 3 (in-home or assisted living) Adult Medicaid members who never enrolled in CHOICES
Short-term LTSS at age 55+ Children's Medicaid (CoverKids, EPSDT services)
MAGI-based Medicaid populations (parents, pregnant women, children)
Medicare Savings Programs (QMB, SLMB, QI)

If your parent had TennCare for regular medical coverage but never enrolled in CHOICES, or enrolled in CHOICES before turning 55, TennCare's own conditions for seeking recovery are not met.

Read that for exactly what it is. TennCare publishes the conditions under which it must pursue an estate, not a guarantee that no claim can arise otherwise, and the federal floor reaches long-term care wherever it was delivered, not only care delivered through CHOICES. If your parent received long-term services outside CHOICES, file the Request for Release and get the answer in writing.

What Counts as the Estate in Tennessee

The federal Medicaid statute lets states choose between two definitions of "estate" for recovery purposes:

  • Probate definition: only assets that pass through probate court. Joint accounts, payable-on-death accounts, transfer-on-death designations, life insurance, and life estates pass outside probate.
  • Expanded estate definition: includes non-probate transfers like jointly-held property, life insurance, and trust assets.

Tennessee has not written the expanded definition into its plan. Attachment 4.17-A instead defines "Estate" as what the member owned at the moment immediately preceding death, "as limited or expanded by T.C.A. Titles 30, 31, and 32 and by the Courts of the State of Tennessee." In practice that lands close to the probate definition, which has direct consequences for what families can do to protect assets. It is worth being precise about the difference, though: the plan points at Tennessee probate law rather than freezing a probate-only rule of its own, so what falls inside the estate can move with Tennessee statutes and court decisions.

Assets that DO pass through probate (and are subject to recovery if the recipient was an LTSS member 55+):

  • Real estate held in the deceased's sole name with no surviving joint owner
  • Bank accounts in the deceased's sole name with no payable-on-death designation
  • Investment accounts in the deceased's sole name with no transfer-on-death designation
  • Personal property (cars, jewelry, household goods) titled to the deceased
  • Business interests held individually

Assets that DO NOT pass through probate (and so generally sit outside what recovery reaches):

  • Real estate held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship (passes automatically to the surviving joint tenant)
  • Bank accounts with a payable-on-death (POD) beneficiary
  • Investment and securities accounts with a transfer-on-death (TOD) registration
  • Life insurance policies with a named beneficiary (other than the estate)
  • Retirement accounts (401(k), IRA) with a named beneficiary
  • Property held in a properly-funded irrevocable trust
  • Life estates where the remainder interest was conveyed during life

Revocable living trust treatment. Whether TennCare can reach revocable trust assets is not settled in Tennessee. Because the estate definition above points at Tennessee law rather than freezing a probate-only rule, a revocable trust is not a guaranteed shield here. For families using one as the primary asset-protection vehicle, an irrevocable trust is the safer long-term hedge, but that's a planning decision for an elder-law attorney.

Why TennCare Does Not File a TEFRA Lien

Federal Medicaid law allows states to place a "TEFRA lien", a lien filed against the home of a Medicaid recipient who is permanently institutionalized, to secure future estate recovery. Some states use this aggressively. Tennessee does not.

Per State Plan Attachment 4.17-A: "Not applicable. Tennessee does not apply TEFRA liens."

Read that answer for its exact scope. It disclaims the TEFRA lien species, the pre-death lien on the home of a permanently institutionalized member. It is not a statement that no lien of any kind can attach: 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(a)(1)(A) still permits a pre-death lien "pursuant to the judgment of a court on account of benefits incorrectly paid on behalf of such individual." That turns on a court judgment about benefits paid in error, which is a different situation from routine estate recovery, but do not read "no TEFRA liens" as an absolute promise that the home can never be encumbered.

The practical implication for an ordinary CHOICES case: TennCare is not filing a lien on the home because your parent is in a nursing facility. Family members who want to use the home as collateral, sell it on a timeline that fits their needs, or transfer it under a properly-structured plan can do so without a TennCare lien interfering. (Federal Medicaid look-back rules at 42 USC §1396p(c) still apply to transfers within five years of an LTSS application, that's a separate restriction governing eligibility, not estate recovery.)

Survivor Protections and How Long They Last

TennCare's estate-recovery page states that under federal law it cannot recover, or must waive recovery, when the member is survived by a spouse of any age, a child under 21, or a child of any age who is blind or disabled.

These are a timing bar, not permanent forgiveness, and that distinction matters. The federal statute says recovery "may be made only after the death of the individual's surviving spouse, if any, and only at a time" when there is no surviving child under 21 or blind or permanently and totally disabled. Written that way, the protection can lapse: when the surviving spouse dies, or when a protected child turns 21, the clock holding recovery off runs out. Plan on the protection lasting exactly as long as the relationship that creates it, and no longer.

You do not apply for these; they operate by statute. The estate's administrator reports the surviving relationship to TennCare during the Request for Release process. Because recovery is deferred rather than cancelled, a claim can still be pursued after the surviving spouse's later death against property that came from the Medicaid recipient and is still identifiable, so families with a high-value home the spouse may eventually leave to children should ask an elder-law attorney about retitling during the spouse's lifetime.

Tennessee Hardship Waivers and Family-Member Protections

Beyond the federal survivor protections above, three more layers can protect a family home: the federal home-residency provision at 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(2)(B), the federal caregiver-child transfer exception, and Tennessee's own undue-hardship provision in State Plan Attachment 4.17-A.

  • Resident sibling or caregiver child (federal deferral). 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(2)(B) bars recovery against the home while a sibling who lived in it for at least one year immediately before the member's institutional admission, or a son or daughter who lived there for at least two years before admission and provided care that kept the member out of an institution, is still lawfully living in the home and has lawfully lived there on a continuous basis since the date of that admission. Two limits matter. The duration test alone is not enough: a relative who moved out after the admission and later moved back is outside the bar even though they met the year or two-year test. And the subsection is written "in the case of a lien on an individual's home under subsection (a)(1)(B)", the TEFRA lien Tennessee does not file, so treat it as the shape of the protection rather than a freestanding Tennessee rule. In Tennessee, bring the same residence-and-care facts as an undue-hardship request, below.
  • Federal caregiver-child transfer exception. Separately, 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(2)(A)(iv) lets a parent transfer the home, during life, to an adult child who lived in it for at least two years immediately before institutionalization and who, as determined by the state, provided care that delayed it, without a transfer penalty. That moves the home out of the probate estate before death, so recovery never reaches it. This is a look-back transfer exception, not a TennCare waiver.
  • Sole income-producing asset (Tennessee). If the property of the estate subject to recovery is the sole income-producing asset of survivors, such as a family farm or other family business, the State Plan counts that as undue hardship, and states there is no value limitation on that asset. This is one of the more generous hardship provisions among state Medicaid programs. The applicant must demonstrate that the asset truly is the survivors' sole income source.
  • The hardship list is closed at three. Attachment 4.17-A says undue hardship "is constituted to be any of the following three circumstances", the first being the sole income-producing asset above; the other two turn on a survivor's residence in the home (a sibling who lived there at least a year, or a son or daughter who lived there at least two years and provided care). That is a defined list rather than open-ended discretion, so identify which of the three fits your family and document it. Where recovery is not cost-effective or hardship applies, the State Plan also notes that the requesting party may move the Probate Court for an order to waive recovery completely or partially, or to defer it, under T.C.A. § 71-5-116.

How to apply. A hardship request is made using the same Request for Release (RFR) form family members file after a TennCare member dies, with documentation supporting the specific circumstance. TennCare reviews and either grants the waiver, partially grants it, or denies it; the Probate Court route above is what remains if it is denied.

The $10,000 Threshold and Other Cost-Effectiveness Limits

Per State Plan Attachment 4.17-A, all claims of $10,000 and below are not cost effective, and if the claim is below $10,000, the State provides a release of the claim. Those are the plan's own two sentences, and they are not quite the same line: the "not cost effective" finding covers $10,000 and below, while the release is written for claims below $10,000. A claim landing exactly on $10,000 is worth confirming in writing rather than assuming.

For estates with limited assets, which describes many LTSS-recipient estates after a long nursing-facility stay, this means TennCare does not pursue a claim, and the release comes out of its review of the estate inventory.

A second cost-effectiveness rule sits alongside it: recovery is also not cost effective when the estimated costs of recovery, together with the estimated total of other claims with preference over the Medicaid claim, exceeds or nearly exceeds the assets in the decedent's estate. TennCare's claim is not first in line, so when the claims ahead of it plus collection costs would consume the estate, there is nothing left to recover. Tennessee probate law sets the order of preference; your probate attorney or the court clerk can confirm where TennCare falls in a specific estate.

Practical implication: for many TennCare LTSS recipients, the combination of:

  • An estate definition that tracks Tennessee probate law
  • The $10,000 cost-effectiveness threshold
  • Claims with preference over the Medicaid claim coming first
  • Undue-hardship waivers
  • The federal survivor protections

…means many estates end up owing TennCare nothing, even after substantial spending on services.

The Request for Release Process After Death

When a TennCare member dies, the family or estate administrator submits a Request for Release (RFR) to TennCare. This is the gateway to either confirming there's no claim or beginning the recovery process.

Where to submit:

The form asks for:

  • The deceased member's name, date of death, Social Security number, and TennCare ID
  • The estate administrator or executor's name and contact information
  • An inventory of probate assets
  • Surviving relationships (spouse, minor children, blind or disabled children), for the survivor protections
  • Hardship waiver information if applying

TennCare returns one of three things:

  1. A release with no claim, common when there was no LTSS, when the LTSS was received under age 55, when a survivor protection applies, or when the claim is below $10,000.
  2. An itemized claim with the dollar amount of TennCare's recovery interest. The estate administrator is then responsible for paying the claim out of estate assets in the order of preference Tennessee probate law sets for claims.
  3. A request for additional documentation, common in hardship-waiver applications.

Timing. TennCare does not publish a guaranteed turnaround for an RFR, so ask the Estate Recovery Unit for a current timeframe rather than working from a number you read online. Probate proceedings should not close until the RFR has been resolved, because claims against the estate are settled before distributions to heirs.

If the claim is disputed. If a family disagrees with TennCare's claim or the denial of a hardship waiver, the State Plan's own route is to move the Probate Court for an order to waive recovery completely or partially, or to defer it, under T.C.A. § 71-5-116. This is a legal proceeding that benefits from elder-law-attorney representation.

Estate-Planning Strategies That Work in Tennessee

Because TennCare's recovery reaches the estate as Tennessee probate law defines it, probate avoidance creates clear, legitimate planning opportunities. The strategies below are well-established under TN law and used routinely by elder-law practitioners. None of them is a one-size-fits-all answer, and each has tax, control, and access implications that should be reviewed with an attorney.

Joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Real estate or accounts held jointly pass automatically to the surviving joint tenant outside probate. Watch-out: joint titling can create unintended tax and gift consequences, and the joint tenant's own creditors can reach the asset.

Payable-on-death (POD) and transfer-on-death (TOD) designations. Bank accounts (POD) and investment or securities accounts (TOD) transfer to a named beneficiary at death, outside probate, while the owner keeps full control during life. Note on real estate: Tennessee does not offer a transfer-on-death deed for real property. HB 1793 in the 114th General Assembly would have adopted the Tennessee Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, and its sponsors withdrew it on February 25, 2026. Joint tenancy and life estates remain the established probate-avoidance tools for a Tennessee home.

Life estates. A life estate deed conveys the remainder interest in real estate while reserving a life estate for the owner; at death the remainder becomes possessory automatically, outside probate. Watch-outs: conveying the remainder may trigger a gift-tax filing requirement and may create look-back issues if done within five years of an LTSS application.

Irrevocable trusts. A properly-drafted irrevocable trust (for example a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust) moves assets out of the grantor's estate, generally beyond recovery. Watch-outs: it requires giving up significant control, runs into the five-year look-back if used to qualify for LTSS Medicaid, and costs meaningfully more to set up.

Caregiver-child residence transfers. 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(2)(A)(iv) allows transfer of the home during the parent's life to an adult child who lived there for at least two years immediately before institutionalization and who, as determined by the state, provided care that delayed it. That bypasses the look-back transfer penalty and moves the home out of the estate, so recovery never reaches it. A family that cannot complete the transfer in time can still request undue hardship during the Request for Release process.

The crucial caveat: these strategies affect Medicaid eligibility, estate tax, gift tax, capital gains tax, and family relationships. For any meaningful estate value or complex family situation, get personalized legal advice before acting; the resources below can point you to a Tennessee elder-law attorney.

Where to Get Help

If you have questions about TennCare estate recovery, hardship waivers, the Request for Release process, or planning options, start with these resources.

TennCare Estate Recovery Unit Direct contact for Request for Release filings, itemized claim questions, and hardship-waiver applications. Mailing address: 310 Great Circle Road, Nashville, TN 37243; fax 615-413-1941. 866-389-8444 tn.gov/tenncare/legal/estate-recovery.html
TennCare General eligibility, CHOICES, and policy questions; publishes the estate-recovery rules under Tenn. Code Ann. § 71-5-116. tn.gov/tenncare.html
Tennessee Bar Association Lawyer Referral Service Connects families with a Tennessee elder-law attorney for trust planning and estate-recovery questions. tba.org
National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), Tennessee members Refers families to elder-law attorneys for Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts and estate-recovery defense. naela.org
West Tennessee Legal Services Free legal help for lower-income seniors and families on TennCare and estate-recovery matters. wtls.org

Worried about whether estate recovery applies to your family's situation? TennCare's rules look complex from the outside but become simple when you walk through them step-by-step against actual facts. Brevy's care advisors can walk through the situation and explain whether estate recovery is even on the table, and at no cost.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will TennCare take my mom's house in Tennessee?

Probably not. TennCare says it must seek recovery when the deceased member received CHOICES Group 1, 2, or 3 long-term services and supports at age 55 or older and no waiver or undue hardship applies. Recovery reaches the estate as Tennessee probate law defines it, and Tennessee does not file TEFRA liens on the home during the member's lifetime. If the home is held jointly with right of survivorship or is structured under a life estate, it generally passes outside probate and beyond recovery. The remaining situations where the home is at risk are narrower than most families expect.

What if my parent only had TennCare for medical bills, not nursing-home care?

Then TennCare's own conditions for seeking recovery are not met. The conditions TennCare publishes are CHOICES Group 1, 2, or 3 services, received at age 55 or older, by a member who has died, with no waiver or hardship applying. Standard medical coverage without long-term services, or long-term services received before age 55, falls outside them. TennCare does not publish a matching guarantee that no claim can ever arise otherwise, so if there was any long-term care in the picture, file the Request for Release and get the answer in writing.

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

Not a TEFRA lien. Tennessee's State Plan declines the federal TEFRA lien option, answering "Not applicable. Tennessee does not apply TEFRA liens." That disclaims the lien some states file against the home of a permanently institutionalized member; it is not a statement that no lien of any kind can attach, since federal law still permits a pre-death lien under a court judgment for benefits incorrectly paid. In an ordinary CHOICES case, no lien is filed and the home becomes relevant only after death, and only if it is part of the estate.

What's the difference between estate recovery and the Medicaid look-back rule?

They're two different rules at different points in time. The look-back rule applies before a Medicaid LTSS application and looks back five years (60 months) at asset transfers, it determines eligibility. Estate recovery applies after the member's death and only against assets that remain in the estate. Both are at 42 USC §1396p but in different subsections, look-back at (c), recovery at (b). A family can plan around look-back through an irrevocable trust strategy more than five years out, and around recovery through probate-avoidance vehicles like POD bank accounts, TOD securities registrations, joint tenancy, and life estates. (Note: Tennessee does not recognize Lady Bird, or enhanced life estate, deeds, and it does not offer a transfer-on-death deed for real property; HB 1793, which would have adopted the Tennessee Uniform Real Property Transfer on Death Act, was withdrawn by its sponsors on February 25, 2026.) For the complete TN look-back framework, the 2026 transfer-penalty divisor of $295.87 per day ($8,846.10 per month), the DRA-2005 penalty start-date rule, exempt transfers, and worked examples, see Tennessee's 5-Year Lookback and Penalty Divisor guide.

Can my brother and I keep our parent's house if we lived there as caregivers?

Possibly, through more than one route, but read the limits carefully. Federal law at 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(2)(B) describes a bar on recovery against the home while a qualifying relative still lives there: an adult child who lived in the home for at least two years before the parent's institutional admission and provided care that kept them out of an institution, or a sibling who lived there for at least a year before admission. The residence must also have been continuous since that admission date, so moving out and later moving back puts you outside the bar even if you met the two-year or one-year test. Note too that the subsection is written for the case of a lien on the home under § 1396p(a)(1)(B), which is the TEFRA lien Tennessee does not file. In Tennessee, the practical route is to bring those same residence-and-care facts as one of the State Plan's three undue-hardship circumstances during the Request for Release. Separately, a parent can transfer the home to a qualifying caregiver child during life without a transfer penalty under 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(c)(2)(A)(iv), which moves it out of the estate so recovery never reaches it. Get an elder-law attorney's review before assuming you qualify under any of these.

What's the $10,000 threshold I keep reading about?

Per State Plan Attachment 4.17-A, all claims of $10,000 and below are not cost effective, and if the claim is below $10,000 the State provides a release of the claim. Those are the plan's own two sentences, and the release one is written for claims below $10,000, so a claim landing exactly on $10,000 is worth confirming in writing rather than assuming. For estates with limited assets, which describes many LTSS-recipient estates, it means TennCare does not pursue a claim. The release comes during the Request for Release review.

Does TennCare's claim come before or after funeral expenses in probate?

After. TennCare's claim is not first in line: Attachment 4.17-A itself refers to "other claims with preference over the Medicaid claim" and treats recovery as not cost effective when those claims plus the estimated costs of recovery exceed or nearly exceed the assets in the estate. Costs of administration and reasonable funeral expenses are settled ahead of it. Tennessee probate law sets the full order of preference; your probate attorney or the court clerk can confirm exactly where TennCare falls in a specific estate.

What does my family do after my parent on TennCare passes away?

File a Request for Release (RFR) with TennCare's Estate Recovery Unit at 866-389-8444. The form will ask for the deceased's information, an inventory of estate assets, surviving relationships, and any hardship waiver applications. TennCare returns either a release, an itemized claim, or a request for documentation. Ask the unit for a current turnaround time rather than relying on a figure you read online, and do not let probate close until the RFR is resolved.

Will a revocable living trust protect assets from TennCare estate recovery in Tennessee?

Do not count on it. The argument that it does is that revocable trust assets pass outside probate and TennCare recovers from the estate. But the State Plan defines that estate "as limited or expanded by T.C.A. Titles 30, 31, and 32 and by the Courts of the State of Tennessee", a pointer to Tennessee law rather than a flat probate-only rule you can plan around, and the question is not settled in Tennessee case law. For families relying on a revocable trust as the sole asset-protection vehicle, an irrevocable trust strategy is the safer long-term hedge. For a comprehensive walk-through of which home-protection tools work in Tennessee, Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts, tenancy by the entirety, and the federal caregiver-child transfer exception, and which are not available here (Lady Bird deeds, which Tennessee does not recognize, and real-property transfer-on-death deeds, which Tennessee does not offer), see How to Protect Your Home from Medicaid in Tennessee. Talk to an elder-law attorney before deciding.

Does estate recovery apply if my parent received in-home care under CHOICES instead of nursing-facility care?

Yes, CHOICES Group 2 and Group 3 HCBS members are subject to estate recovery on the same terms as CHOICES Group 1 nursing-facility members, as long as they received services at age 55 or older. The federal Medicaid statute treats LTSS uniformly regardless of setting; Tennessee follows the federal floor.

If my parent's only meaningful asset is a family farm, will TennCare take it?

Likely not. Attachment 4.17-A's first undue-hardship circumstance is that the property of the estate subject to recovery is the sole income-producing asset of survivors, such as a family farm or other family business, and it states there is no value limitation on that asset. This is one of the most generous hardship provisions among Medicaid programs nationally. It is still a hardship request you have to make and support: the applicant carries the burden of showing the asset truly is the survivors' sole income source.

Where can I get help with TennCare estate recovery questions?

For TennCare directly: Division of TennCare, Estate Recovery Unit, 866-389-8444. For an elder-law attorney or free legal aid, see the Where to Get Help section above, which lists TennCare, the Tennessee Bar Association referral service, NAELA's Tennessee members, and West Tennessee Legal Services. For Brevy's care advisors, use the chat link above.

How does TennCare estate recovery compare to other states?

For the federal substrate, the OBRA-93 mandate, 42 USC § 1396p(b), the 51-jurisdiction matrix of probate-only versus expanded-recovery states, the five categorical protections, the federal hardship-waiver mandate, and the cross-state planning toolkit (MAPT, SPIA, caregiver-child transfer, Lady Bird deeds in 5 states, spousal refusal in 5 states), see Medicaid Estate Recovery Explained. Tennessee's framework sits among the more consumer-friendly in the country: no TEFRA lien, an estate definition that tracks Tennessee probate law rather than the expanded federal option, a release for claims below $10,000, and a sole-income-producing-asset hardship circumstance with no value limitation. For the Tennessee-specific home-protection toolkit and which planning tools work versus which don't apply in Tennessee, see How to Protect Your Home from Medicaid in Tennessee.

Learn More

MedicaidTennessee Medicaid Programs OverviewTennessee Medicaid (TennCare) covers 1.4M Tennesseans in 2026. Eligibility, CHOICES, ECF CHOICES, Katie Beckett, MCOs, estate recovery, and how to apply. MedicaidHow to Protect Your Home from Medicaid in TennesseeHow Tennessee families protect a home from TennCare in 2026: the $752,000 equity limit, 5-year lookback, probate-only estate recovery, and what actually works. MedicaidTennessee 5-Year Lookback & Penalty DivisorHow TennCare's 60-month lookback works in Tennessee, the 2026 penalty divisor math, exempt transfers, the caregiver-child home exception, and hardship waivers. MedicaidTennCare Eligibility & Income LimitsThere is no single TennCare income limit. Tennessee Medicaid uses five separate tests (ABD, CHOICES, ECF CHOICES, Katie Beckett, MSPs). 2026 numbers inside. MedicaidTennessee Long-Term Care & Nursing HomesTennessee Medicaid nursing home coverage runs through TennCare CHOICES Group 1. 2026 eligibility, patient liability, estate recovery, and how to apply. MedicaidMedicaid Estate Recovery ExplainedMedicaid estate recovery explained: federal law, 51-state matrix, categorical protections, hardship waivers, and 2025-2026 reform updates. Verify before acting.

Find personalized help with TennCare 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.

BC

Brevy Care Team

Expert eldercare guidance from Brevy's team of healthcare professionals and researchers.