[marzam2013]

My father in law is in Hospice care, I was told that Medicare/or Medicaid will confiscate for some reason his properties since he was put on Hospice care, If this is possible?

[Fr_Chuck]

If medicare does not cover the full cost of the care, such as in a nursing home, they may put a lien on his property to cover the debt when he dies. Also property can not be given or sold for pennies on the dollar, if they do that, they may go back several years to property that was given away and even put a claim on them.

All they do is be sure the debt is paid. If Medicare covers the entire cost of Hospice except for the deductables and as long as those bills are paid there should be no issue.

[smearcase]

Some info on Medicare coverage for Hospice Care:
http://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/02154.pdf
Who advised you that Medicare or Medicaid may confiscate his properties because he was in a hospice? If he meets the medicare requirements (clearly listed in the link I provided) I think that whoever gave you that information is confusing hospice care with nursing home patients whose care might (accent on might) be paid for by Medicaid (if asset requirements, etc are met). Medicaid (not Medicare) provides most of the funding (once again when certain asset requirements are satisfied) for nursing home costs, basically once the patients prove that they are unable to pay for the nursing home care themselves. Medicare only gets involved in nursing home costs when someone is released from a hospital and needs certain treatments as part of their recovery, and Medicare payment stops if the prognosis changes and the patient is no longer expected to be able to return to their home. In that situation the patient must pay the nursing home costs with their own funds or meet Medicaid eligibility requirements based on their assets. Spendowns become an issue, any giveaways over the past 5 or so years are considered, and liens against homes and properties which vary by state may get involved--but once again (to the best of my knowledge) this primarily comes up with Medicaid payments for nursing home care and not Medicare payments for Hospice. Medicaid is obligated to collect whatever assets they can legally collect to repay funds they have extended on patients. Sorry to say, it is even more complicated than my feeble attempt here to explain it. Folks who get into serious monetary issues with Medicaid especially, need to consult specialized elder care attorneys who can find their way through the very extensive stack of regulations, and no-- I am not an attorney and have no connection with elder care attorneys.