Public Social Service: special needs trusts.

Existing law provides for the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services, under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid Program provisions. Existing federal law provides that assets in specified trusts shall not be considered for the purposes of determining an individual's eligibility for, or amount of, benefits under Medicaid but provides that the state shall receive all amounts remaining in those trusts upon the death of the trust beneficiary. Existing state law provides that while a special needs trust, as specified, is in existence, the statute of limitations otherwise applicable to claims of the State Department of Health Care Services, the State Department of Mental Health, the State Department of Developmental Services, and any county or city and county is tolled and that the trust property is subject to those claims at the death of the special needs trust beneficiary or on termination of the trust. This bill would exempt from the claims of those entities the trust property of a deceased beneficiary if there is a surviving child who is a sibling of the deceased beneficiary, that surviving child is also the beneficiary of a special needs trust, and the trust of the deceased beneficiary provides for the transfer of the property in the trust of the deceased beneficiary to the special needs trust of the surviving sibling.