Q; Mom in Nursing home with Medicaid for 7 months. Dad paid cash for her. Mom died in May 20l6. Dad died July 20l6 with $70,000 in his bank account and the house. We never received a bill from Medicaid. We are in probate, but no response from Medicaid. The attorney said they lost the bill. We don’t want to be involved in Medicaid Fraud.

A: You need to ask your attorney what the status of the Medicaid claim is. Generally, once an estate is opened, the estate has an obligation to notify the state’s Medicaid program of an estate being opened, in which county it has been opened, the docket number and the contact person for the estate. Once this is done, Medicaid is considered to have been put on notice of the estate and to promptly file their claim. If the estate was legally advertised, in theory, all claimants have on year from the first date of advertising to file a claim. Even so, a Medicaid claim normally must be satisfied.