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Medicaid Planning · Hawaii

Hawaii Medicaid estate recovery

Medicaid estate recovery rules for Hawaii.

Published: September 4, 2026. Last checked: September 5, 2026.

Recovery scope

Expanded estate recovery includes probate property and specified nonprobate interests such as joint ownership, survivorship interests, life estates, living trusts, and other arrangements in which the recipient held an interest at death.

Source: Hawaii Medicaid State Plan Attachment 4.17-A [state-plan] — State-plan Attachment 4.17-A page 2 effective February 1, 1996

Controlling authority

Hawaii Revised Statutes §§ 346-29.5 and 346-37, Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 17-1705, and State Plan Attachment 4.17-A govern recovery.

Source: Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 17-1705, Subchapter 5 [state-medicaid-agency] — Rules governing medical-assistance recovery effective September 30, 2013 Additional authority: Hawaii Medicaid State Plan Attachment 4.17-A [state-plan] — State-plan Attachment 4.17-A page 2 effective February 1, 1996

Exemptions and deferrals

Recovery is postponed while a surviving spouse lives and while a surviving child is under 21, blind, or disabled; lien rules also protect a qualifying sibling or caregiver child residing in the home.

Source: Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 17-1705, Subchapter 5 [state-medicaid-agency] — Rules governing medical-assistance recovery effective September 30, 2013

Hardship-waiver path

The state plan provides an undue-hardship waiver process for estate recovery.

Source: Hawaii Medicaid State Plan Attachment 4.17-A [state-plan] — State-plan Attachment 4.17-A page 2 effective February 1, 1996

Lien practice

Hawaii may impose a lien on real property after determining an institutionalized recipient cannot reasonably be expected to return home, subject to protected-occupant and notice rules; the lien is dissolved if the recipient returns home.

Source: Hawaii Administrative Rules chapter 17-1705, Subchapter 5 [state-medicaid-agency] — Rules governing medical-assistance recovery effective September 30, 2013

Sources

Methodology & sources

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

General information, not legal advice.