Report: Oregon best at recouping Medicaid costs from estates

States widely vary in how aggressively they recover Medicaid service costs from the estates of deceased beneficiaries, a new study reports.

Oregon had the highest recovery rate in fiscal year 2003, at 2.2% of total long-term care costs. Eight states collected more than 1% of long-term care costs that year. The median recovery rate nationwide was about 0.5%. The study called that “a relatively small recovery rate but in total dollar amounts not insignificant.”

States recovered a total of $347.4 million in 2003, up from the $72 million reported in a 1996 version of the same study. The American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging conducted the investigation.