This is to advise social services districts of adverse decisions in the cases
of Verdow v. Sutkowy (USDC/NDNY) and Spetz v. New York State Department of Health (Supreme Ct., Chautauqua Co.). In these cases, the courts ruled that assets in an irrevocable trust created by a Medicaid applicant/recipient (A/R) or the A/R’s spouse cannot be considered available based on the creator’s retention of a limited power of appointment. As a result of the Verdow decision, any A/R whose Medicaid eligibility was denied or discontinued from September 1998 onward solely because the A/R or the A/R’s spouse was the beneficiary of a self-settled trust granting them a limited power of appointment, must have his or her Medicaid eligibility redetermined.
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