Medicaid Applicant's Change to Annuity's Beneficiary Designation Does Not Affect Original Application

A Missouri appeals court rules that a Medicaid applicant whose annuity initially did not name the state as a beneficiary could be denied benefits on her original application even though she later changed the annuity to name the state. Danna v. Missouri Dept. of Social Services (Mo. Ct. App., W.D., No. WD77213, Dec. 2, 2014).

Anna Danna's husband owned an annuity that named both himself and Mrs. Danna as annuitants. The annuity did not name the state as a remainder beneficiary. Mrs. Danna entered a nursing home and applied for Medicaid benefits in August 2012. In January 2013, the state denied benefits, determining that the annuity was a countable resource.

Mrs. Danna appealed and presented evidence that the state had been named as a beneficiary as of April 2013. The hearing officer denied benefits, and Mrs. Danna appealed to court. The trial court reversed the state's decision and determined that Mrs. Danna should be eligible for benefits as of the date the state was a named as a beneficiary on the annuity.  Mrs. Danna appealed, arguing that the state should have given her prior notice or the opportunity to change the beneficiary designation.

The Missouri Court of Appeal affirms, holding that the state properly denied Mrs. Danna benefits on the original application. According to the court, because the state "was not named as primary beneficiary when [it] rejected [Mrs. Danna's] application, the [state] was prohibited from considering the later beneficiary designation change, and the annuity was properly counted as an available resource." The court notes that Mrs. Danna's argument that the state violated rules by not informing her that if she named the state as a beneficiary, she would be eligible for benefits, was not preserved for appeal because it was not brought up at the hearing.

For the full text of this decision, go to: https://www.courts.mo.gov/file.jsp?id=81235

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