The Claim After A Death
Fla. Stat. 409.9101 — a debt for assistance paid after 55, and never enforced against a spouse or a young or disabled child
The debt. Accepting Medicaid creates a debt to the agency for the total paid for medical assistance after the recipient reached 55 years of age. Payments to a person under 55 do not create a debt. The agency recovers by filing a statement of claim in the probate proceeding.
When it is not enforced. The debt is not enforced if the recipient is survived by a spouse, a child under 21 years of age, or a child who is blind or permanently and totally disabled, and it is not enforced against property exempt from creditors' claims under the state's constitution or laws.
Hardship. The agency does not recover if doing so would cause undue hardship for the qualified heirs, and the personal representative or any heir may request a waiver. Hardship does not exist solely because an heir would lose an expected inheritance.
What the agency weighs. Among the criteria are whether an heir lives in the decedent's home, lived there at the death, made it a primary residence for the 12 months before, and owns no other residence; and whether the heir would be deprived of food, clothing, shelter or medical care.
The federal law the section follows, the agency's own rules on hardship, and probate procedure are not on this page. Whether a particular estate owes a claim, or qualifies for a waiver, is a question for a licensed Florida attorney.
Sources for this section (1)
- Fla. Stat. 409.9101 — The Medicaid Estate Recovery Act
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Florida attorney.