Estate Recovery in Iowa

Estate recovery in Iowa is a state’s backdoor approach to offsetting Medicaid costs by making claims against the assets retained by the patient. If you receive long-term care Medicaid benefits for home care or nursing home care, any benefits paid while you were 55 and over can be recouped from your probate estate following your death. 

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Typically, the largest asset in the patient’s estate exempt from the Medicaid spend-down is the primary residence. Without additional planning, the state is able to recoup its costs from the equity of the home as long as there is no spouse living in the home at the time of the Medicaid recipient's death.

There are a number of ways to protect assets from estate recovery. When Medicaid 4 You puts together any Medicaid asset protection plan, it involves not only protecting assets from the spend-down but also protecting assets from eventual estate recovery.

Even if you are already receiving Medicaid assistance for nursing home care and never needed to implement an asset protection plan to become eligible, we can still assist with asset protection through an estate recovery avoidance plan to protect your home or the home of a loved one in the nursing home.  If you need help protecting assets from Medicaid estate recovery in Iowa, book a free consultation.