Panel advances bill to let authorized representatives finish Medicaid appeals after a client’s death

A state House committee advanced a bill that would allow an authorized representative named on a Medicaid application or related instrument to continue pursuing a pending appeal after the death of the applicant.

The bill’s sponsor told the committee the change responds to cases where informally appointed representatives lose authority when the principal dies, which can abruptly end appeals and leave families and long-term-care facilities without expected Medicaid payments. “I did not feel like that was good policy,” the sponsor said of the current outcome that ends appeals on death.

Supporters framed the proposal as a narrow fix to preserve continuity in administrative appeals. The sponsor said revisions were made to sections covering powers of attorney, advanced directives and the Administrative Procedure Act so that, when an authorized representative was already acting, “their authority to prosecute that appeal continues to [the] death.”

Department of Human Services staff raised caution about the bill’s scope. Miss Quicke, who said her office now handles eligibility fair hearings previously done by the Department of Community Health, told the committee the current draft may be broader than intended and could allow an agent to start a new application after a grantor’s death — a change she warned could trigger estate-recovery claims. “If the intent of this bill is to allow someone who has a power of attorney to appoint an authorized representative to file a new application for Medicaid assistance after someone’s death, that has some unintended consequences,” she said.

Committee members asked whether the proposal conflicts with long-standing fiduciary rules that generally terminate powers of attorney at death; Representative Paulkham noted that statutory and common-law principles typically end a POA on a principal’s death and asked about risks from creating exceptions. The sponsor acknowledged legal uncertainty but said the bill’s purpose is to prevent appeals from ending simply because a representative’s authority technically expired.

The sponsor proposed amendments to tighten the bill by replacing language that would allow a representative to “appoint” another person after death with language that would let the existing agent “serve as” the authorized representative to the extent one had not previously been appointed. Committee members added the change to the amendment package and voted the amendment and the bill out of committee.

What’s next: The committee approved the amendments and passed the bill out of committee; the sponsor said staff and interested parties would continue to collaborate on narrower statutory language if the bill advances.

Speakers quoted or referenced in this article are listed in the committee roster from the hearing.