Medicaid Book

Medicaid Verification: When the Agency is Required to Help

Some Medicaid classes of assistance do not require verification, but most long-term care classes of assistance do. Verification documentation includes…

5 months ago

Government Bonds and Medicaid

Government Bonds are debt instruments issued by a government entity. The most common form of government bond owned by a…

4 years ago

Vehicles and Medicaid

General Rule One vehicle of any value is exempt. If the applicant has more than one vehicle, then the most…

4 years ago

Divorce and the Community Spouse

Another “option” that may be considered in appropriate cases is divorce. Deeming between spouses terminates when the marriage terminates. In…

4 years ago

Seeking Adjustments to the CSRA or MMMNA

MCCA includes a mechanism for increasing both the CSRA and the MMMNA in certain cases. The methods by which this…

4 years ago

Post-Eligibility Treatment of the Institutional Spouse’s Income

As eligibility is being determined, if the Community Spouse’s monthly income falls below the Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (“MMMNA”),…

4 years ago

Protecting Income for the Community Spouse

Income and resources are treated differently. Unlike resources, income is not pooled in determining eligibility; the Community Spouse’s separate income…

4 years ago

Potential Redetermination When Moving to a New State

In Dullard v. Minnesota Department of Human Services, 529 N.W.2d 438, 443 (Minn. App. 1995), Minnesota was allowed to reevaluate…

4 years ago

Transfer Penalties and the Community Spouse

Some couples might consider reducing the size of the marital estate by giving their resources away. Frequently this is the…

4 years ago

Protecting Resources for the Community Spouse

Federal law protects the healthy (or healthier) spouse of a nursing home resident. The healthier spouse is known in Medicaidland…

4 years ago

MCCA’s Legislative History

The following the committe report for the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act of 1988 (MCCA): The leading cause of financial catastrophe…

4 years ago

Opening Comments regarding the Medicaid Community Spouse

While nursing home bills accrue, the healthy or well spouse, known as the “Community Spouse,” [Note 1] struggles to identify…

4 years ago

Medicaid Planning

Medicaid planning is discussed in more detail in subsequent chapters. Planning is the process of restructuring an estate in a…

4 years ago

Transfer Penalties

Medicaid beneficiaries cannot “fix” eligibility by giving away resources. A transfer of resources without receipt of fair market value will…

4 years ago

Changing the Default Rules for a Community Spouse

As with the income rules, the resource defaults may be changed. First, if all of the Applicant's income has been…

4 years ago

Default Community Spouse Resource Allowance

A Community Spouse is entitled to a resource allowance in addition to the income allowance. 42 U.S. Code § 1396r–5(f)(1)…

4 years ago

Deeming

The SSI regulations describe deeming as the process of considering another person's income or resources to be your own. See…

4 years ago

Resource Eligibility

As a general rule, all countable resources owned by the Institutionalized Spouse are considered available to pay his or her…

4 years ago

Income of the Community Spouse

The law protects a Community Spouse with low income. It does this by diverting a portion of the applicant's income…

4 years ago

Income Eligibility

On the income side, there are three pathways to Medicaid eligibility for nursing home residents. First, SSI recipients are almost…

4 years ago

Nursing Home Medicaid and HCBS Waivers – Financial Eligibility

In evaluating financial eligibility for Medicaid, both monthly income and resources must be considered. The basic rule is everything having…

4 years ago

Financial Eligibility Overview

Categorical and medical eligibility is covered in Chapter 2. Here we begin an aerial fly-over of financial eligibility. In this…

4 years ago

Medical Eligibility

Only those persons with a medical need are eligible for Medicaid and not all persons needing help receive Medicaid. In…

4 years ago

More on State of Residence

With few exceptions (such as the existence of an interstate compact), a Medicaid applicant must be a resident of the…

4 years ago

More on Citizenship

An applicant must be a U.S. Citizen or a legally admitted alien to receive Medicaid. 42 CFR § 435.406. In…

4 years ago

Categorical Eligibility

In addition, to establish technical eligibility for nursing home Medicaid, an applicant must be (i) a U.S. Citizen or lawfully…

4 years ago

Aged, Blind or Disabled

Individuals who are aged (age 65 or older), blind or disabled may be entitled to Medicaid if they are medically…

4 years ago

Long-Term Care Delivery System

The remainder of this book focuses on long-term care Medicaid. Long-term care refers to a wide range of supportive and…

4 years ago

Poverty-related group for the aged and disabled

The enactment of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1986 (OBRA 86) offered States an option for covering persons whose…

4 years ago

Recipients of State Supplemental Payment (SSP) benefits

Many States provide SSP benefits with State-only dollars on a monthly basis. These payments are intended to cover such items…

4 years ago

Medicaid and Persons who qualify for Supplemental Security Income (SSI)

With one important exception, States are required to provide Medicaid coverage to recipients of SSI. SSI, authorized under Title XVI…

4 years ago

Mediaid Eligibility (in general terms)

The Federal Medicaid statute defines over 50 distinct population groups as being potentially eligible for States’ programs. Some groups (classes…

4 years ago

Origins of the Medicaid Program

Medicaid was enacted in 1965, in the same legislation that created the Medicare program, the Social Security amendments of 1965…

4 years ago

Medicare/Medicaid Relationship

The Medicare program (Title XVIII of the Social Security Act) provides hospital insurance (HI), also known as Part A coverage,…

4 years ago

Medicaid Spend-down – What is it?

What are people talking about when they say you have to "spend down" to become eligible for Medicaid? Well, it…

5 years ago