Minnesota lawmakers move to fix Medicaid lien issue

March 30--Lawmakers from both parties banded together Tuesday to help Minnesotans hit by estate liens from the Department of Human Services.

The department has long recouped the cost of care for elderly or disabled Minnesotans over 55 on Medicaid by placing claims against their estates. But since 2014, lots of non-elderly, non-disabled people have qualified for Medicaid, too. These otherwise healthy adults over 55 can be added to Medicaid if their income is low enough regardless of how many assets they have saved up -- and the costs for their Medicaid premiums and care can be billed directly against their estates.

"In the last several months, there's been an incredible amount of stress brought on by the discovery of the (Medicaid) estate claim debacle for our family," said Scott Killerud of Willow River. Killerud and others told of facing liens worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Under a slate of bills unanimously approved by a House committee Tuesday, all that would go away. Not only would DHS be barred from placing estate liens for routine Medicaid expenses, but anyone who incurred those expenses since 2014 would have their liens canceled. Other measures would make notices of the liens more visible and create the option to pay back liens early.

"I just want to apologize, from the Legislature, from the state, from all of us here, for putting you through what you went through," Rep. Matt Dean, R-Dellwood, told a number of affected citizens who testified.

Affected citizens said they felt like they had been duped or tricked into signing up for Medicaid with no knowledge that they would be hit with claims on their estate.

"The feeling of entrapment here is just ridiculous," said Claudia Foussard of St. Paul.

Many of those testifying had the same story: They had visited mnsure.org to sign up for health insurance, but because their income was low enough, they were redirected from MNsure's private insurance to Medicaid without realizing they were exposing themselves to liens.

"I would never in my life have signed on against my home," Foussard said.

Rick Rayburn of Willow River said "DHS needs to be held accountable" for the snafu, and some lawmakers sounded sympathetic to his call.

"I never knew about this lien stuff," said Rep. Tina Liebling, DFL-Rochester. "I am really concerned about the fact that somebody (at DHS) did know about it and didn't tell us."

Representatives of DHS and MNsure did not testify at Tuesday's hearing.

A similar bill in the Senate passed its first committee earlier this month.

The bills would not end the longstanding practice of placing liens to recover the costs of Medicaid patients in nursing homes or other long-term care, only the practice of applying the liens to more conventional Medicaid health coverage.

------

Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify how Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act changed the practice of estate liens for low-income Minnesotans in 2014.

___

(c)2016 the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.)

Visit the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, Minn.) at www.twincities.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.