I was my Mother's POA, Designated Caregiver and Executor of the Estate. Can I be paid for over 4 years for my live-in caregiving (cooking, cleaning, doctor's appointments, hospital trips, arranging for ACLF, Nursing Home, Hospice and funeral arrangements from Medicaid? Is there a time limit to file?
One question, did your Mother apply for Medicaid while she was alive? If not, you cannot apply after the fact.
Regarding the Power of Attorney and Executor, only your Mother could pay you for that, if written in her Will..... that a certain dollar amount or percentage of her Estate would be your commission.
If you did caregiving for free, that was your decision and all is over & done with. NO after death Medicaid, Medicare or SS. SS will pay a tiny amount - about $ 260 - to the surviving spouse for funeral costs.
If mom had any assets - which likely would only be her home or a car if she was on Medicaid - you can expect to have the state's MERP / estate recovery program to contact you regarding payment due to the state. If there is a house, you better start getting your documentation together to apply for the caregiver exemption in a timely manner against the states required recovery otherwise the house will need to be sold to settle MERP or will have a lien placed.
You may find that the provider may not be wanting to write this due to it's possible future legal issues. Or if mom only saw the MD twice a year, then theres no history to support specific caregiving tasks needed. If you had a full time job, you may not be able to claim the exemption either.
If you are the executrix, all costs related to probate that you pay should be reinbursement to you as a first & foremost claim. Ask your probate attorney about how to ensure this is done.
For the caregiver, their situation is probably about getting the caregiver exemption to MERPs claim or lien so that MERP provides a release of claim/lien which is given at probate to distibute the estate as per the will. Caregiver may not have expenses.
But back to probate, If your in a equal level of claim state, that too makes a difference as the bigger claims get paid first. But some states (TX) have probate as a level of claim state. Like for TX 1& 2 are administrative and funeral related; 3 is executor & heir related - so if you have been paying anything to administer thats a 2, paying things on the property thats a 3 claim (in theory it also is an exclusion to the MERP tally under TAC) as it is entered in probate record. The judge has to take all items as per the order of class. MERP is class 7 - so their place is after whatever may or may not be left. MERPs claim is limited to whatever the property sells or has a value set at - so a medicaid tally of 150K with a home of 70k assessed value is limited to claim of only 70. So a property that is lower value to begin with and has valid class 1-6 claims perhaps could not meet the level of cost effective to warrant a claim 7 bring placed as a distributee by the court. Class 8 is credit cards, they are usually really out of luck. Both 7 & 8 are unsecured classes.
If say home is modest - 70k. The nut on a parents home is 15k a year and they are in the NH on medicaid 4 years then pass away. So whomever paid for house items (taxes, insurance, utilities, etc) on the empty house has a 60k class 3 claim
Then add in probate costs. MERP could want to place a class 7 10k claim but the judge could rule their claim does not meet the standards for soundness and won't validate their claim. Judge awards the assets as per the valid will & ownership transfers.
To me, you have to go into probate with documentation to get MERP limited or set aside. Whether its expenses on the house, low income heir, caregiver exemption, etc. If you don't do probate and just ignore MERP, then it seems that the whole medicaid paid figure could be placed against the property by default. The vibe I'm getting is that for the outside contractors managed MERP program run much like debt collectors - if you don't respond in 60 days then the debt collector can place a claim or lien. And 9% interest.