Under federal and state Medicaid law, German reparations payments for Holocaust survivors are exempted from being counted as either “income” or a “resource.” Ideally, the Medicaid applicant has escrowed the reparations in a separately identifiable account, but this is by no means a requirement. By being exempt, these payments (1) are not counted when determining if a person is income-eligible for a particular program; (2) are not included in the income that must be turned over to the facility by the Medicaid recipient each month; and (3) are not counted towards the resource limits, which are $2,000 for the applicant/ recipient and no more than $117,240 for their community spouse.
Under federal law, the States must pursue estate recovery against the estates of deceased Medicaid recipients, so that the State can be reimbursed from assets that were exempted during the recipient’s lifetime. There has been a gap between the exclusion for reparations and the broad mandate of the Medicaid estate recovery law. A-1041 is designed to address that problem. It is co-sponsored by Assemblyman GARY S. SCHAER and Assemblywoman VALERIE VAINIERI HUTTLE. http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2014/Bills/A1500/1041_I1.HTM
If this issue is of interest to you, contact your NJ representatives and make your voice known.
For legal advice on Medicaid eligibility and preserving reparations payments, and for preparation of Medicaid applications, call 732-382-6070