In Part 1 of this discussion, I talked about the amount of assets a married person can keep and still qualify for Medicaid. In this post, I will start by discussing the income rules.

Many people have heard that all the monthly income of the nursing home spouse must be given to the nursing home each month. That is generally true when the nursing home resident does not have a spouse. However, when the nursing home resident is married, the rules are very different.

If the non-nursing home spouse, also known as the Community Spouse, has monthly income below $2,113, then some of the nursing home resident’s income must be given over to the Community Spouse to allow the Community Spouse to reach at least $2,113 in total monthly income. This is known as the Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance. In many cases, if the needs of the Community Spouse are higher, due to a higher than average rent/mortgage/property taxes/utility bill (over $634) then the Community Spouse is entitled to an even higher allowance. This allowance can sometimes be up to $3,216 each month and would come from the combined income of both spouses.

On the other hand, if the Community Spouse has income of over $3,216, then all of the Community Spouse’s income stays with the Community Spouse and none of it needs to be shared with the nursing home spouse.

My next post will speak about the asset rules again in more depth.