Estate of Wood v. Arkansas Department of Human Services

David Newbern, Justice.

Act 415 of 1993 permits the

Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) to make a claim against a decedent’s estate for medicaid payments made on the decedent’s behalf prior to death. The Act became effective August 15, 1993. Helen H. Wood died October 4, 1993. The Probate Court allowed DHS’s claim against Ms. Wood’s estate for $16,697.02 which represented medicaid nursing home payments made between December 26, 1991, and October 4, 1993. The question before us is whether the award constituted a retroactive application of Act 415. We hold the Act was applied…