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Medicaid Planning · District of Columbia

District of Columbia Medicaid estate recovery

Medicaid estate recovery rules for District of Columbia.

Published: Not yet published. Last checked: September 2, 2026.

Recovery scope

Recovery is limited to real and personal property, including a home, that the recipient owned at death and that does not pass automatically to another person. For recipients age 55 or older, the agency seeks all Medicaid services except the specified Medicare cost-sharing amounts for dates of service on or after January 1, 2010.

Source: DC DHCF Medicaid Estate Recovery Fact Sheet [state-medicaid-agency] — Posted August 19, 2015; operative date-of-service rule stated in the agency fact sheet

Controlling authority

Source unavailable. Check with the state Medicaid agency.

State Medicaid agency

Exemptions and deferrals

Recovery cannot proceed while a spouse, child under 21, or blind or disabled child lives in the home and until the home is sold, on the conditions stated by DHCF.

Source: DC DHCF Medicaid Estate Recovery Fact Sheet [state-medicaid-agency] — Posted August 19, 2015; operative date-of-service rule stated in the agency fact sheet

Hardship-waiver path

DHCF evaluates hardship case by case, including specified family-business, necessities, medical-care, shelter, public-assistance, and resident-caregiver circumstances. A waiver or exemption request is due within 30 calendar days of the proposed-recovery notice.

Source: DC DHCF Medicaid Estate Recovery Fact Sheet [state-medicaid-agency] — Posted August 19, 2015; operative date-of-service rule stated in the agency fact sheet

Lien practice

DHCF describes notice of proposed recovery and a lien connected to the post-death estate-recovery claim; reviewed materials do not support a broader lifetime-lien assertion.

Source: DC DHCF Medicaid Estate Recovery Fact Sheet [state-medicaid-agency] — Posted August 19, 2015; operative date-of-service rule stated in the agency fact sheet

Sources and update policy

Methodology & sources

Checked at least annually and whenever recovery statutes, waivers, liens, or agency practices change.

This page is educational and is not legal advice.