Medicaid qualification is full of its own jargon that can make the process a mystery to almost anyone. One key concept to understand is the “community spouse resource allowance.” To speak in the jargon of Medicaid for a moment, the community spouse resource allowance is the value of non-exempt assets that a married couple is permitted to keep and still qualify for Medicaid long-term care assistance. That definition is quite a mouthful, so I will break it all down and put it into context.

When one member of a married couple requires long-term care for more than 30 days, an inventory of the couple’s assets as of the day the institutionalized spouse first entered the hospital or nursing home must be prepared. This is done using form DHS 4574-B, the Asset Declaration. This form must accurately describe a couple’s assets, under penalty of law. From this form, a determination is made of how much the couple will be permitted to keep and qualify for Medicaid. Eventually, assets that are retained by the couple will have to be separately titled in the name of the spouse who is not institutionalized. That spouse is called the community spouse. Therefore, the amount the couple can keep is called the community spouse resource allowance. “Resource” means basically the same thing as “asset” for most purposes. The process of dividing assets between what must be spent down and what the community spouse may keep is referred to as the division of assets. Generally speaking, the community spouse will be permitted to keep one half of all countable assets, but no less than $20,800.00 and no more than $104,400.00.
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