The Facts About Medicaid income eligibility in Florida include several strict requirements, including the following:
- Medicaid applicant’s own monthly income can’t exceed $2,205 (in 2017), but there’s no limit on the applicant’s well spouse (“Community Spouse” or the spouse not receiving care);
- A married applicant may be allowed to credit some part of his or her monthly income above the $2,205 limit for the support a community spouse if that spouse’s monthly income is less than approximately $2,000; and
- Any excess income of the applicant after an allowance for the community spouse support must be paid to the assisted living facility or used to fund a Medicaid Trust that he or she creates. That trust income is used to support the recipient during his or her lifetime.
More Facts About Medicaid Income Eligibility = Asset Eligibility
The key to coordinating the complex world of Medicaid is to work with an experienced Medicaid attorney.
A Medicaid applicant should partner with a qualified estate planning attorney to properly plan for program eligibility.
In the event that the transfers are intended primarily to achieve Medicaid eligibility and are disallowed, those transferred assets will impact Medicaid eligibility and benefits. Many transfers of assets within five years of a Medicaid application (known as the Medicaid “look-back period”) are presumed to have been intended primarily to achieve Medicaid eligibility.
That’s why it’s vital to map out a complete estate plan as soon as possible based on the facts about Medicaid income eligibility.
Florida’ Strict Medicaid Limits
In our state, the Medicaid programs have strict limits on the assets that an applicant can have.
- An applicant can’t own more than $2,000 of assets in addition to any assets that aren’t counted because the law considers them either exempt or not available;
- A married applicant’s community spouse can’t retain more than $120,900 of assets;
- The definition of “assets” includes all assets that are titled in applicant’s name or jointly titled with another person, like the family home.
Questions?
If you have questions about facts of Florida Medicaid income eligibility and estate planning, attorney John Frazier is a skilled Medicaid planning (with over 2,000 cases completed that helped preserve their family’s savings), estate planning and elder law practitioner. Please contact John for a free telephone consultation at 727-586-3306 extension 104. If you prefer click here now to send in a contact form, and we will call you.