If you have received a letter from the Texas Medicaid Estate Recovery Program and have been affected by COVID-19, please call 800-641-9356 to provide an update. MERP will work with each caller on a case-by-case basis to attempt to accommodate specific needs.
Medicaid is a government program that pays for healthcare for people with limited incomes. Some of these services are provided to people as they grow older. Medicaid pays for services that help people stay in their own homes. It also pays for people to move to a nursing home, if that is what they need.
To help pay for these long-term services, every state must have a Medicaid Estate Recovery Program (MERP). If you received Medicaid long-term services and supports, the state of Texas has the right to ask for money back from your estate after you die. In some cases, the state may not ask for anything back, and the state will never ask for more money back than it paid for your services. The program is administered by Texas Health and Human Services (HHS).
This program will affect only long-term care services and supports you receive after the age of 55, and only if you first applied for these services after March 1, 2005. If you applied for these services before March 1, 2005, MERP does not affect you.
If you were on an interest list for services before that date but did not complete an application for services until after March 1, 2005, MERP does affect you.
The following services and programs are affected by MERP:
MERP also affects the costs of certain hospital and prescription drug services you receive. Primary Home Care (PHC) is not affected by MERP.
If you are not sure whether MERP applies to the services you currently receive or will be receiving, you should ask your Health and Human Services case manager.
Medicaid managed care enrollees should contact their health plan service coordinator for further information.
When a person applies for Medicaid and long-term services and supports, the state provides a notice that explains MERP. When the person dies, the state sends a different notice to the estate representative or heirs to let them know that the state intends to file a claim. The notice will ask the representative for information so the state can decide whether to file a MERP claim.
An estate is property, such as money, a house, or other things of value that a person leaves to family members or others (heirs) when he or she dies. MERP does not apply to all property that a person may own.
Examples of property that the state will not collect on include: