Recovery scope
Florida recovers by filing a claim in the deceased recipient's probate estate for Medicaid assistance paid after age 55. Benefits paid before age 55 do not create an estate-recovery debt.
Controlling authority
Florida Statutes § 409.9101 is the Medicaid Estate Recovery Act. It directs the agency to file its claim under the probate procedures in Part VII of Chapter 733 and cites the federal authority in 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(1).
Exemptions and deferrals
The debt is not enforced when the recipient is survived by a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or permanently and totally disabled child. Property exempt from creditors under Florida law is also protected from the claim.
Hardship-waiver path
The personal representative or any heir may ask AHCA to waive some or all recovery. The statute directs AHCA to consider a qualifying heir's residence in the home, loss of necessities, full-time care that delayed nursing-home entry, and whether sale costs would equal or exceed the property's value.
Lien practice
Estate recovery proceeds through a probate claim. If the estate lacks liquid assets, nonexempt personal property or nonhomestead real property must be sold when sale costs will not exceed the proceeds; real property is not transferred to AHCA.
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.