State to limit liens on estates of dead Medicaid enrollees

Washington will amend a policy that allows it to put a lien against Medicaid patients’ estates after they die, said officials from the state Health Care Authority (HCA). The state will still attempt to recover money spent on a dead person’s health care, but only for enrollees 55 and older and in long-term care. Those are the patients who tend to accrue high prescription costs. Medicaid requires states to place liens on the estates so it can recover long-term care costs. The liens brought in…