OK SB704

Oklahoma Health Care Authority is authorized to file and enforce liens against nursing home residents' homesteads for medical assistance payments after one year of continuous inpatient care.

Authority must provide written notice to residents explaining the lien, its effects on homestead ownership, and the resident's right to a hearing before filing the lien.

Liens cannot be enforced while the homestead is occupied by a surviving spouse, children under 20, incapacitated adult children, or siblings with equity interest who resided there for at least one year before admission.

When a homestead is sold to enforce the lien, up to $6,000 from proceeds may be set aside in an irrevocable trust for the resident's funeral expenses, with the Authority named as remainder beneficiary.

The act becomes effective November 1, 2015.