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- Reported and committed to finance
- Referred to health
Companion bill
The same bill in the other chamber. A bill becomes law when one version passes both houses and the governor signs it, so either number can carry it.
Limits the definition of "estate", for purposes of medical assistance, to all property and assets in an individual's estate and passing under a will or by intestacy
In Assembly Committee · Health · Sponsor Richard Gottfried
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S6226 REVISED 02/01/12
Title of bill
An act to amend the social services law, in relation to the definition of "estate" for purposes of medical assistance for the needy
Purpose
This bill repeals those provisions of Chapter 59 of 2011, one of the budget bills, which changed the definition of estate for the purposes of recovering Medical Assistance benefits and gave the Commissioner authority to promulgate regulations, on an emergency basis if he chose, to include other property in which the individual has an legal title or interest at the time of death including jointly held property, retained life estates, and interests in trusts.
Summary of provisions
Section 1 of the bill amends subdivision 6 of section 369 of the social services law, as amended by section 53 of part H of chapter 59 of the laws of 2011 to return the provisions of the section to those that were in place prior to adoption of Chapter 59 in 2011.
Section 2 of the bill provides an immediate effective date.
Justification
The implementation of the 2011 Budget provision has demonstrated the impractical nature of new definition of "estate." First, the Department of Health issued emergency regulations to implement changes to the Medicaid estate recovery provisions as adopted in the 2011-12 budget on September 8, 2011. Then, throughout the Fall of 2011, extensive discussions were held to resolve problems raised by the proposed regulations. A resolution was not reached and, due to the numerous unresolved concerns, the emergency regulations were not finalized. The Department of Health, however, is expected to issue new regulations.
The primary concern with the emergency regulations is the proposed retroactivity, which was not the intent of the legislature. Other major concerns include the ambiguous definition of "estate" and conflicts with current real property and inheritance laws. The emergency regulations included life estates within its expanded definition of "estate." However, this conflicts with current real property law and would cause significant title issues when a life estate interest is held in a chain of title. Moreover, heirs may receive property affected by the expanded definition through the intestate process, and property inherited in this manner cannot be declined. Therefore, heirs of families unable to pay for sophisticated estate planning run the risk of incurring financial penalties. For the above
reasons, the most prudent course is to repeal the 2011-12 budget language.
Prior legislative history
New Bill.
Fiscal implications
The 2011-12 budget assumed savings of $1.1 million attributable to this initiative. Given the months of non-enactment, it is unlikely that number can be achieved in fiscal year 2011-2012. Further, savings can be achieved by pursuing recoupment of Medicaid costs under the original definition of estate or via the mechanism of the global cap.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.