Watch Your Language: Institutionalized Spouse

Medicaid applies different rules to the institutionalized spouse. Find out here if that’s you.

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.

A married person becomes the institutionalized spouse when they first enter a medical facility. In Iowa, that includes the first day of any hospital stay as long as that hospital stay ends with the patient being discharged into a skilled care facility or nursing home.

And, obviously, in order to be called the institutionalized spouse, the person seeking Medicaid coverage must be married. One or both spouses can be institutionalized; if only one spouse is in a facility, they have a different title – the subject of our next post.

Call our office at (712) 737-3885 to find out how we can reduce or even eliminate the financial stress that comes with a looming institutionalization.