Medicaid Book

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…

2 years ago

Medicaid Planning

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

2 years ago

Transfer Penalties

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

2 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…

2 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)…

2 years ago

Deeming

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

2 years ago

Resource Eligibility

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

2 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…

2 years ago

Income Eligibility

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

2 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…

2 years ago