Watch Your Language: CSRA

Recently we’ve referred to the community spouse a super hero. For this super hero, the special abilities aren’t mutations or the result of a yellow sun – she can’t fly and he’s not super-strong. Instead, their powers are tied directly to their status as the healthy spouse – the spouse who doesn’t need nursing home care. [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Non-countable Resource

Once you’ve disclosed all your resources to Medicaid, it’s up to the state to determine which ones are countable and which are non-countable. The term “non-countable resource” is defined quite narrowly. It only includes a very small list of specific assets that the federal government has said should be disregarded by the Department of Human Services. [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Countable Resource

If you’re asking Medicaid to help pay for nursing home care for a loved one, you’ll have to tell the state about everything they own. Everything. It’s the state’s job to determine whether they’re eligible based on the value of those assets that are considered countable resources. [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Community Spouse

In our last entry we talked about what it means to be the institutionalized spouse. But the mild-mannered spouse who is not in the nursing home has special “powers” and a special title to go with it: community spouse. [Read More]

Watch Your Language: Institutionalized Spouse

Institutionalized. Sounds kind of scary, right? Fortunately, when we’re talking about Medicaid, saying someone is the institutionalized spouse really only means that they are the nursing home resident, the person who needs Medicaid coverage. [Read More]