A Georgia appeals court rules that the state Medicaid agency properly imposed a penalty period on a Medicaid applicant who had turned down her inheritance from her husband's estate within the three-year look-back period. Georgia Department of Health v. Medders (Ga. App., No. A08A0067, July 3, 2008).
In May 2003, about six months following her husband's death, Gracie Medders filed a renunciation and disclaimer of the inheritance she was to receive from her husband's estate. Less than three years later, Mrs. Medders entered a nursing home and applied for Medicaid. The Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) assessed a penalty period for an improper transfer of assets because Mrs. Medders declined her inheritance during the three years prior to her application. After an administrative law judge (ALJ) upheld DCH's decision, Mrs. Medders appealed.
A trial court reversed the ALJ's decision, finding that Mrs. Medders' refusal of her inheritance was not a transfer since she never actually received her husband's assets. The court further found that even if she had renounced the inheritance, the renunciation would relate back to the date of Mrs. Medders' husband's death, not the date of the actual renunciation. Since Mrs. Medders' husband died prior to the Medicaid look-back period, the court found that the renunciation should not count as a disqualifying transfer. DCH appealed the trial court's decision, arguing that it contravened state and federal Medicaid law.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia, Second Division, reverses. The court finds that the disclaimer of an inheritance qualifies as a transfer of assets because the person executing the disclaimer is entitled to the inheritance, regardless of whether she actually comes into physical possession of it. Furthermore, the court writes that for purposes of determining the succession of interests during the probate process "the effect of the renunciation relates back to the date of death. The fact remains, however, that Medders filed the renunciation in May 2003. Nothing in the [Georgia Medicaid law] requires DCH to ignore this date in applying its transfer-of-resources policies."
For the full text of this decision, click here. (Note: The link is to LexisOne, a free resource that the Georgia state court system now uses to publish its opinions online. LexisOne allows practitioners to obtain select state court opinions from the previous five years. Free registration is required.)
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