Your state's pack. New issue every Monday. Bookmark it. Built for the Texas T&E solo who knows the Estates Code but still loses an afternoon tracking the moving Medicaid pieces — the MERP rule changes, the income cap and Miller-trust plumbing, the homestead exceptions. What's below is what mattered in Texas this week.
For licensed attorneys. This pack is general legal information and professional commentary for practicing attorneys — it is not legal advice, does not apply to any specific matter, and creates no attorney-client relationship. Verify every authority against the cited primary source before relying on it with a client. Published by Mike Moss, a Utah-admitted attorney, as an AI-enablement information product; it is not an offer of legal services and is not a representation that the author is admitted to practice in your jurisdiction.
Three developments I think actually matter to a Texas T&E solo. Each comes with a reachable citation so you can verify it yourself before you use it with a client.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission filed proposed MERP rule amendments with the Secretary of State, clarifying the program consistent with federal law at 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(1), including a State Plan Amendment to send MERP notices to the decedent's last known address so heirs learn of a possible claim.
For a Texas solo this is a notice-timing change worth watching: heirs will be put on notice of MERP claims at death, which sharpens the value of pre-death planning (homestead exceptions, TOD deeds, exempt-transfer structuring). Review any open estate where a MERP claim is possible and confirm the homestead-exception posture before the rule finalizes.
Tex. Register · sos.state.tx.us/texreg/archive/March202026 · 42 U.S.C. § 1396p(b)(1)
For 2026 the nursing-home Medicaid income cap is $2,982/month for a single applicant; the asset limit is $2,000. A client over the income cap cannot qualify without a Qualified Income Trust (QIT), the Texas Miller Trust, into which excess income is routed each month.
In Texas the QIT is not optional optimization — it is the gate. The malpractice trap is timing: the trust must exist and be funded in the month eligibility is sought, so a client who applies first and plans second loses months of coverage. Build the QIT into the intake the moment income is over cap.
1 Tex. Admin. Code § 358.339 · 2026 figures: hhs.texas.gov
Texas protects the homestead without a dollar cap (Tex. Const. art. XVI, § 50; Tex. Prop. Code § 41.001), and MERP carries a homestead exception. But protection from creditors in life does not equal protection from estate recovery at death if the home passes through probate and no MERP exception applies.
The planning move is keeping the homestead out of probate — a transfer-on-death deed (Tex. Est. Code ch. 114) or a properly structured arrangement — so the constitutional protection carries through to the heirs instead of dropping the home into a probate estate MERP can claim against.
Tex. Const. art. XVI § 50 · Tex. Prop. Code § 41.001 · Tex. Est. Code ch. 114
This week in Texas for the T&E solo with Medicaid-planning clients: what the State Bar of Texas, the local bars, and the Texas HHSC bulletins actually put in front of you — CLEs worth the seat, Real Estate, Probate and Trust Law Section notices, ethics opinions, and HHSC MERP or waiver notices that moved the eligibility math.
The State Bar of Texas CLE calendar, the REPTL Section, the local bar notices, and the HHSC provider bulletins all publish on different schedules and almost none of it is indexed by practice-focus. A Texas T&E solo doing eligibility and estate-recovery planning spends half an hour a week sifting for the three items that touch the vehicles they draft. This is that sift, already done. Half an hour a week adds up to a working day every quarter. You get it back.