71-2-306 - Recipient receiving property or income Notice required Recovery Fraudulently obtaining aid or disposing of property Penalty. - Tennessee Statutes

71-2-306. Recipient receiving property or income Notice required Recovery Fraudulently obtaining aid or disposing of property Penalty.

(a)  If, at any time during the certification for medical assistance, the recipient becomes possessed of any property, real or personal, or income in excess of the amount stated in such recipient's application for medical assistance or transfers any of such recipient's property, real or personal, it shall be the duty of the recipient to immediately notify the local county office of the department. Any medical assistance paid after the recipient has come into possession of property, real or personal, or income, or has transferred any of such recipient's property, real or personal, that renders the recipient ineligible to receive medical assistance under the rules and regulations of the department, shall be recoverable in a suit by the state as a debt due the state.

(b)  Whoever:

     (1)  Knowingly obtains, or attempts to obtain, or aids, or abets any person to obtain by means of a willfully false statement or representation or by impersonation, or other fraudulent device, medical assistance to which such person is not entitled or medical assistance greater than that to which such person is justly entitled; or

     (2)  With intent to defraud, aids or abets in buying or in any way disposing of the property, either personal or real, of a recipient of medical assistance, without the consent of the department;

commits a Class E felony and is punishable accordingly, except such acts shall be punished as Class A misdemeanors where the amount involved is less than five hundred dollars ($500).

[Acts 1961, ch. 96, § 12; 1965, ch. 13, § 1; impl. am. Acts 1975, ch. 219, § 1 (a, b); T.C.A., §§ 14-1612, 14-3-106; Acts 1989, ch. 591, §§ 1, 6, 103.]