Texas's Medicaid Estate Recovery Program (MERP) can seek reimbursement from a deceased Medicaid recipient's probate estate for long-term-care costs paid by the state, including nursing facility care and some STAR+PLUS HCBS services -- but only after death, and with protections for a surviving spouse or dependent children.
The detail behind the program
MERP recovery does not happen during a Medicaid recipient's lifetime, and it is delayed or waived entirely when there is a surviving spouse, a surviving child under 21, or a surviving child of any age who is blind or disabled. Texas also allows hardship waiver applications outside those categories. Families sometimes hear about estate recovery secondhand and panic that a Medicaid application will automatically cost them the family home -- in practice, the rules are narrower than that fear suggests, but they are also genuinely case-specific enough that a plain FAQ answer shouldn't be the last word. If a specific property or estate is involved, that's worth a conversation with an elder law attorney before, not after, applying.
