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If Medicaid pays for a nursing home, can it take your house in Florida?
Usually not. Here is why Medicaid is involved at all, what Florida can and can't collect, and what happens to the house while your parent is still living. Plain answers for Citrus, Hernando, and Pasco County.
Nursing home care in Florida runs thousands of dollars a month. Medicare pays for only a short stay after a hospital visit, not for long-term care. When the savings run out, Medicaid is the program that pays, if your parent qualifies. Our page on paying for senior care covers who qualifies.
Florida keeps a running total of what Medicaid spent on that care. After the person dies, the state can try to get some of it back. That's called estate recovery, or the payback. It's the reason families ask whether the house is at risk.
This page doesn't cover whether your parent qualifies for Medicaid. Every answer was checked against Florida law. None of it is a recommendation for your own situation. Last reviewed: September 13, 2026.
The short version:
- If Medicaid paid for nursing home care, can Florida take the house after your parent dies? Usually not. Florida can only collect from property that goes through probate court, the court process that settles what a person owned. Anything with a joint owner, a named beneficiary, or a lady bird deed skips probate and is out of reach.
- Dad was on Medicaid, he died, and Mom is still in the house. Is it safe? Yes. Florida law says the debt can't be collected at all if your parent leaves a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or permanently disabled child.
- What's the difference between the homestead exemption and homestead protection in Florida? The exemption is a property tax break. The protection is what keeps creditors away from the house. A Florida home that passes to a spouse or heirs is protected from creditors by the state constitution, and Florida's Medicaid law says it can't touch protected property. That covers most family homes.
- Florida paid for years of my father's care. What is it never allowed to collect from? Anything that skips probate, protected homestead, and everything if he left a spouse or a qualifying child. Care paid for before age 55 creates no debt either. Only what Medicaid paid from 55 on can ever be recovered.
- We're applying for Medicaid to cover a nursing home. What is the five-year look-back? A check of the past 60 months for property your parent gave away. It's a different rule from the payback. The look-back happens when you apply for Medicaid. The payback happens after a death.
After your parent dies
If Medicaid paid for nursing home care, can Florida take the house after your parent dies?
Usually not. Three separate Florida rules each stop it on their own.
Florida only collects through probate court. Florida law says the state gets its money back by filing a claim against the estate in a probate case. Federal law would let Florida go further and reach property that skips probate, like a life estate or a living trust. Florida chose not to. If property never enters probate, Florida's claim never reaches it.
The claim can't touch protected property. Florida law says the Medicaid debt can't be enforced against property the state constitution protects from creditors. A family home that passes to a spouse or heirs is that kind of property. The same law says plainly that real property is never transferred to the agency.
Three family situations stop it entirely. Florida's statute says the debt can't be enforced if your parent is survived by a spouse, a child under 21, or a child who is blind or permanently and totally disabled.
And care paid for before age 55 creates no debt in the first place. Only benefits paid from 55 on can ever be recovered.
Dad was on Medicaid, he died, and Mom is still in the house. Is it safe?
Yes. Here's why, because it comes up.
Florida can only collect by filing a claim in the probate case of the person who received Medicaid. Your mother is a different person, and her estate isn't his.
The house passed to her protected. Florida's constitution says a homestead goes to a surviving spouse or heirs free of the dead person's creditors, and the Florida Supreme Court has said that protection carries on after death.
Florida also never gave itself the power to put a lien on a Medicaid recipient's home. It could have. It didn't.
And two years after a death, Florida law bars any claim against the estate, against the person handling it, or against anyone who inherited. The Florida Supreme Court calls that an absolute bar a judge has no power to set aside.
So when your mother dies, or if she sells, Florida is not coming back for your father's nursing home bill.
This is the situation where a lady bird deed does real work. If the house passes to her children as heirs, it's still protected homestead, but it has to go through probate to get there. A lady bird deed keeps it out of probate entirely, so Florida's claim never reaches it, whoever she names. And Florida's Medicaid manual says signing one isn't a transfer, so it won't hurt her own application. Our lady bird deed page covers who needs one, what it costs, and the ways it can fail.
One note on the wording, because you may run into it. Florida's statute says the debt can't be enforced. Florida's agreement with the federal government says recovery waits until the surviving spouse dies. No court has said which one controls. It doesn't change the answer, because even under the second reading, Florida has no way to collect once the two years pass.
Florida paid for years of my father's care. What is it never allowed to collect from?
Four things, all written into Florida's own law.
- Anything that skips probate. A house with a joint owner or a lady bird deed, an account with a named beneficiary, life insurance. Florida only collects through probate, so none of it is reachable.
- Protected homestead. A home that passes to a spouse or heirs, which the Florida Constitution shields from creditors.
- Anything at all, if he left a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or permanently disabled child. In those cases the debt can't be enforced.
- Care paid for before he turned 55. That never became a debt.
One condition on the homestead. The protection carries past death only when the home goes to a surviving spouse or to heirs. A home left to someone outside that group, a friend, a caregiver, a charity, isn't protected homestead. It can be reached like any other asset in the estate. If that's your plan, it's worth a lawyer's time.
After the death, how long does Florida have to collect what Medicaid spent?
Florida's Medicaid agency has to file its claim in the probate case. The deadline is the later of two dates:
- three months after the first newspaper notice to creditors
- 30 days after the agency is served with a copy of that notice
If your parent was 55 or older, whoever is handling the estate has a duty of their own. They have to serve the notice and a death certificate on the Medicaid agency within three months of that first publication.
Two years after a death, no claim against the estate is binding on the estate, the person handling it, or the people who inherit. That's the outer limit, and a judge can't extend it.
Can we ask Florida not to collect?
Yes. Florida law says the agency won't recover if doing so would cause undue hardship for the heirs. Someone has to ask. The person handling the estate, or any heir, can request it.
The clearest case is an heir who lives in the home. All four parts have to be true:
- they live in the home now
- they lived there when your parent died
- it was their main home for the 12 months before the death
- they own no other home
Other situations count too:
- an heir who would be left without food, clothing, shelter, or medical care
- a brother, sister, son or daughter who gave full-time care that delayed a nursing home admission, and who lived there at least a year
- a property that would cost more to sell than it's worth
Florida law also says what doesn't count. A hardship doesn't exist just because recovery will stop an heir from receiving an inheritance they were expecting. These are factors the agency weighs, not a guarantee.
Is this a Florida rule or a federal rule?
Both. Federal law requires every state to try to recover Medicaid money spent on nursing home care for people 55 and older. Florida doesn't have a choice about doing it.
Federal law also sets the floor. It says a state can't collect while a spouse is living, or while there's a child under 21 or a blind or permanently disabled child. It requires every state to have a hardship waiver. And it lets a state go further if it wants to: reach property that skips probate, like a living trust or a life estate, or put a lien on a recipient's home.
Florida does the required minimum and nothing more. It collects only through probate, it never adopted the option to reach beyond it, and it never gave itself lien power over a Medicaid recipient's home. That's why the rules here are gentler than in some other states, and why what you read about another state may not apply in Florida.
The five-year look-back is federal too, and so are the rules on trusts. Florida applies them the way federal law spells them out.
The two things Florida calls "homestead"
What's the difference between the homestead exemption and homestead protection in Florida?
They're two different rules that share a name, and families mix them up constantly.
| Homestead protection from creditors | Homestead property tax exemption | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Shields the home from forced sale and from judgment liens | Lowers the taxable value of the home |
| Do you apply? | No. It works on its own, with no form and no deadline | Yes. You must apply, and missing the March 1 deadline waives it for that year |
| Any dollar cap? | No cap on value. There is a size limit: half an acre inside a city, 160 acres outside one | Capped. $25,000, plus a second exemption on value above $50,000 |
| What stops Medicaid? | This one | Not this one |
So losing the tax exemption, or never having filed for it, doesn't put the house at risk from Medicaid. And having the tax exemption isn't what saves it. Separate tests, separate paperwork. Our page on senior property tax breaks covers the tax side.
The Florida Supreme Court has said the state constitution protects homesteads in three distinct ways: an exemption from taxes, protection from forced sale by creditors, and limits on who the owner can leave it to.
Three narrow situations let a creditor reach a Florida homestead anyway: unpaid property taxes and assessments, money borrowed to buy, improve, or repair the home, and unpaid labor done on the property. A Medicaid debt is none of those.
While your parent is still living
We're applying for Medicaid to cover a nursing home. What is the five-year look-back?
It's a rule that applies when you apply, not after a death. Florida counts back 60 months from the month of the application, looking for property your parent gave away or sold for less than it was worth.
If it finds one, the result is a waiting period before Medicaid will pay for nursing home care or for long-term care at home. Your parent still gets regular Medicaid during that wait, so health coverage doesn't stop.
The 60-month figure Florida publishes is for transfers that don't involve a trust. Trusts have their own rules, further down.
Does the house count against my parent when they apply for Medicaid?
No, as long as it's their main home. Florida doesn't count the home as an asset, whatever it's worth, and a stay in a nursing home doesn't change that.
The home stays excluded in any of three cases:
- a spouse or dependent relative still lives there
- selling would cause hardship for a co-owner
- your parent says they intend to come home
For that last one, Florida policy says a spoken statement is enough, and there's no limit on how long the home can stay excluded, even if your parent never does come home.
One limit applies. If the equity in the home is above $752,000 in 2026, Florida won't pay for nursing home or long-term care. That limit doesn't apply if a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child lives in the home. The figure changes every January.
My mother is in a nursing home on Medicaid. Can we sell her house?
You can, but the money counts. Selling changes the house from something Florida ignores into cash Florida counts.
Florida gives three months from the day the sale money arrives to buy a replacement home. Florida policy says plainly that this three-month period can't be extended.
Miss it and all of the proceeds count as an asset. With a $2,000 asset limit for one person in 2026, that ends long-term care coverage. Put less than the full amount into a replacement home, and the leftover cash still counts.
If the reason for selling is that the house is empty and costing money, talk to a lawyer before listing it. There may be a way to handle it that doesn't end coverage.
Can my parent give the house to me without a Medicaid penalty?
It depends on who you are. Giving the house away is normally a transfer that trips the five-year look-back. But Florida allows the home to be transferred with no penalty at all to certain people:
- a husband or wife
- a child under 21, or a child who is blind or permanently disabled
- a brother or sister who already owns part of the home and lived there for the year before your parent went into care
- a son or daughter who lived there for two years and whose care kept your parent out of a nursing home
That last one matters on the Nature Coast. Families who provided years of care at home often qualify for it. If that's you, raise it with a lawyer before anything is signed.
If you don't fit one of those, the transfer counts, and the penalty applies.
Adding your name to the deed as a co-owner counts too. It looks like a smaller step than giving the house away, but Florida treats it as giving away a share of the house for nothing, and the look-back catches it the same way.
It also creates two problems that don't go away. Your parent can no longer sell or refinance the house without your signature. And your share of the house can be reached by your creditors, so a judgment against you can land on your parent's home.
A lady bird deed does the job people are usually trying to do here, passing the house to you without probate, and it does none of that damage. Your parent keeps full control, your creditors can't touch it while your parent is alive, and Florida's Medicaid manual says it isn't a transfer at all.
My father is in a nursing home on Medicaid and my mother still lives in the house. What happens to it?
Nothing happens to it. The house isn't counted against your father while she lives there, and after he dies Florida can't collect from his estate, because she survives him.
Florida calls your mother the community spouse, meaning the one still living at home. Medicaid's rules are built so that paying for his care doesn't leave her without a home or an income. She keeps the house, and she keeps up to $162,660 in savings and investments in 2026. Florida doesn't count any of that against him.
She also keeps an income. If her own income is below $2,705 a month as of July 2026, some of his income can be shifted to her to bring her up to that amount, before the rest goes toward his care.
When he dies, the house passes to her free of his Medicaid debt under Florida's homestead rules. What happens after that, when she needs care herself, is covered above under what can still happen.
Those figures change most years. They come from Florida's published Medicaid standards and are current as of this page's review date.
Deeds and trusts
If there's a lady bird deed on the house, can Medicaid still reach it?
No. A lady bird deed passes the home outside probate, and Florida only collects through probate.
It doesn't trip the look-back either. Florida's Medicaid manual says that when you keep this kind of deed, "no transfer has occurred," because you still own the house.
Before you get one, read the answers above. If a spouse or heirs will inherit the house, it was already protected. What the deed adds is skipping court, not new protection. Our lady bird deed page covers who needs one, what it costs, and the ways it can fail.
Does putting the home in a trust protect it from Medicaid?
A revocable living trust doesn't, on either count.
Revocable means you can undo it. Because you can take the money back, federal and Florida rules both treat everything in it as still yours. It does nothing for qualifying.
It also doesn't reliably stop the payback. Florida law says a trust the person could still revoke at death is liable for the obligations of the estate when the estate itself can't pay them. Medicaid's claim is one of those obligations. A revocable trust is still a reasonable way to avoid probate for other reasons. It just isn't Medicaid protection.
An irrevocable trust is different, and it works only if your parent is completely cut off from the money. If there is any circumstance at all in which money could come back to your parent, that portion counts as theirs. If nothing can ever come back, then funding the trust counts as giving property away on the day it was funded, and that starts the 60-month clock. This is a decision for a Florida lawyer, made well before anyone needs care.
What changed recently
Did anything change for Florida Medicaid in 2026?
Not the parts on this page. Florida's estate recovery law was last amended in 2013. The look-back is still 60 months. The 2025 federal budget law didn't touch either one.
One change is coming that does matter. For applications filed on or after January 1, 2027, Medicaid will cover bills from two months before the month you apply, instead of three. If a parent is already in care and unpaid bills are stacking up, applying sooner matters more than it used to.
Florida also changed how its list for long-term care at home works, effective July 1, 2026. Medicaid nursing home care has no waiting list. Medicaid care at home does, because the state limits how many people it serves at once. People are screened, placed on the list, and offered a slot when one opens. The 2026 law renamed that list the pre-enrollment list and changed how people are screened, how they're released from it, and how enrollment is offered. If your parent is on the list, or wants care at home instead of a nursing home, call the Elder Helpline and ask how the new procedures apply to them. Our page on Medicaid care at home covers who qualifies, how the screening works, and what to do while you wait.
Free help in Citrus, Hernando and Pasco County
Who can I talk to about this for free?
Everything on this page is general law. What it means for your family depends on facts this page can't know, and the people below will talk it through at no charge.
Florida Senior Legal Helpline: free legal advice by phone for Florida residents 60 and older, in all three counties. Medicaid questions are squarely within what they cover.
1-888-895-7873
Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. There are income limits, but they don't count your savings. To call on someone else's behalf, you need their power of attorney.
| County | Legal aid office | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Citrus | Community Legal Services | 1-800-405-1417 |
| Hernando | Community Legal Services | 1-800-405-1417 |
| Pasco | Bay Area Legal Services | 1-813-232-1343 |
Your Elder Helpline can point you to local programs as well. Call 1-800-262-2243 for Citrus and Hernando, or 727-217-8111 for Pasco.
For questions about Medicare rather than Medicaid, Florida’s free Medicare help program can help at 1-800-963-5337. It’s called SHINE, short for Serving Health Insurance Needs of Elders, and its counselors are volunteers. See our page on SHINE counseling.
Also worth reading
- Legal questions Florida families ask about an aging parent: power of attorney, lady bird deeds, probate and guardianship in one place
- Lady bird deeds in Florida: who needs one, how they fail, and the alternatives
- Will Florida Medicaid pay for care at home?: the long-term care program, the pre-enrollment list, and paying a family caregiver
- How to pay for senior care in Florida: whether your parent qualifies in the first place, sorted by income
- Settling a home after a death: probate, summary administration, and the first practical steps
- Senior property tax breaks: the other Florida homestead, the one you have to apply for
Sources
- Florida Statutes section 409.9101, Medicaid estate recovery: subsections (2) probate claim, (3) age 55, (6) surviving family, (7) property exempt from creditors, (8) hardship waiver, (10) no transfer of real property
- Florida Statutes sections 731.201, 733.702, 733.707, 733.710, 733.2121, and 736.05053
- Florida Constitution, Article X, Section 4 (homestead protection from creditors) and Article VII, Section 6 (homestead tax exemption)
- Florida Statutes sections 196.011 and 196.031, homestead tax exemption and the March 1 deadline
- Public Health Trust of Dade County v. Lopez, 531 So. 2d 946 (Fla. 1988), on homestead passing free of creditors' claims; May v. Illinois National Insurance Co., 771 So. 2d 1143 (Fla. 2000), on the two-year bar; McKean v. Warburton, 919 So. 2d 341 (Fla. 2005), quoting Snyder v. Davis, 699 So. 2d 999 (Fla. 1997), on the three distinct homestead protections
- 42 U.S.C. section 1396p, subsections (b) estate recovery, (c) look-back, and (d) trusts
- Florida Medicaid State Plan, section 4.17, liens and estate recovery
- Florida Department of Children and Families, Economic Self-Sufficiency Policy Manual, chapter 1600: sections 1640.0534 and 1640.0543.01 (home exclusion), 1640.0543.03 and 1640.0543.04 (sale and replacement), 1640.0307.04 (home equity), 1640.0606 and 1640.0608 (transfers and the look-back), 1640.0609.04 (transfers with no penalty), 1640.0613.01 (lady bird deeds), 1640.0576.07 (trusts)
- Florida Department of Children and Families, Economic Self-Sufficiency Policy Manual, Appendix A-9, income and asset standards, July 2026 edition
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2026 spousal impoverishment standards, informational bulletin of 27 April 2026
- Public Law 119-21 (2025), section 71112, retroactive coverage, effective for applications made on or after 1 January 2027
- Florida Laws chapter 2026-74 (CS/HB 1121), effective 1 July 2026
- Florida Department of Elder Affairs, Senior Legal Helpline and Elder Helpline