ENROLLED
2021 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 185
BY REPRESENTATIVE CREWS
A RESOLUTION
To authorize and direct the Louisiana Department of Health to report certain data relating
to Medicaid estate recovery cases to the House Committee on Appropriations and the
House Committee on Health and Welfare.
WHEREAS, Medicaid is the largest source of funding for institutional long-term care
in this state and in the nation; and
WHEREAS, many persons who need long-term care may qualify for Medicaid
assistance despite owning assets such as a home; and
WHEREAS, federal Medicaid law requires states to establish estate recovery
programs in accordance with 42 U.S.C. 1396p for recovering benefits paid through Medicaid
for any person's institutional long-term care after the death of that person; and
WHEREAS, Louisiana law, R.S. 46:153.4, requires the Louisiana Department of
Health to establish an estate recovery program in compliance with federal Medicaid law for
the purpose of recovering Medicaid payments made on behalf of individuals from their
succession estates; and
WHEREAS, this state's Medicaid estate recovery law prohibits recovery on the first
fifteen thousand dollars or one-half the median value of the homestead in each parish,
whichever is higher, making our estate recovery program one of the most generous in the
nation; and
WHEREAS, on average, over the past decade, the Louisiana Department of Health
has collected through Medicaid estate recovery less than five hundred thousand dollars
annually; this figure represents a small fraction of the monies that the state is authorized by
law to recover for benefits paid through its Medicaid-financed institutional long-term care
program which now expends over one billion dollars annually for nursing home care for over
twenty thousand Louisiana citizens; and
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WHEREAS, it is essential for the legislature to obtain key data relating to Medicaid
estate recovery in order to inform changes in public policy to enhance the effectiveness of
this program.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby authorize and direct the Louisiana Department of
Health to report to the House Committee on Appropriations and the House Committee on
Health and Welfare, on or before March 1, 2022, all of the data and information specified
hereafter in this Resolution.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Louisiana Department of Health shall report
to the legislative committees designated in this Resolution all of the following data and
information relating to each Medicaid enrollee who died in calendar year 2016, 2017, 2018,
2019, or 2020 and whose succession estate was subject to the estate recovery program
provided for in R.S. 46:153.4:
(1) The total cost to the Louisiana Medicaid program of the long-term care that the
decedent received.
(2) The value of the decedent's succession estate.
(3) The maximum dollar amount that the department is authorized to recover from
the decedent's succession estate.
(4) Whether or not the department opened a Medicaid estate recovery case to recover
from the decedent's estate.
(5) If the department pursued recovery from the decedent's estate, all of the
following information:
(a) The amount recovered.
(b) The exemptions granted in connection with the estate recovery case, if any, and
the total dollar value of those exemptions.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that in addition to reporting the individual-level case
data required by the preceding section of this Resolution, the Louisiana Department of
Health shall aggregate all such data into quintiles by total cost to the Louisiana Medicaid
program of the long-term care that decedents received and shall report to the legislative
committees designated herein all of the following data associated with each quintile:
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(1) The total cost to the Louisiana Medicaid program of the long-term care that the
cohort of decedents in the quintile received.
(2) The maximum dollar amount that the department is authorized to recover from
the succession estates, collectively, of the cohort of decedents in the quintile.
(3) The total dollar amount recovered by the Medicaid estate recovery program from
the succession estates of the cohort of decedents in the quintile.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Louisiana Department of Health shall ensure
that all individual-level case data required by this Resolution is de-identified prior to
reporting the data to the legislative committees designated herein.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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