When a Medicaid applicant is married, the rules allow their spouse to retain a minimum amount of assets and income. We’ve already talked about the community spouse resource allowance (CSRA); the minimum income level is called the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance (MMMNA). [Read More]
Watch Your Language: Attribution
Here’s how the Iowa Medicaid manual describes an attribution: “When one spouse enters a medical institution or applies for a home- and community-based services waiver, […] resources are attributed to the ‘community spouse’ to protect sufficient resources for the community spouse’s maintenance.” What does that mean in normal english? [Read More]
Watch Your Language: Unavailable Resource
The primary classification of assets under the Medicaid rules is whether an asset is countable or non-countable. But there’s a special class of resources that is both countable and non-countable – an exception to the general rule: the unavailable resource. [Read More]
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]
Watch Your Language: Penalty Divisor
If you’ve transferred assets within the lookback period, the state is going to assess an eligibility penalty period based on the value of all the transfers you made within that 60-month window. The penalty period can be calculated by dividing the value of that gift by the penalty divisor. [Read More]
