At the start of a new year and a new decade it’s a good idea to ruminate on the recently released Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment Rates for 2020. If you work in elder law or as a Medicaid advisor you will need to familiarize yourself with these newly amended figures to better advise your clients.
What are Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment Rates?
These rates generally apply to elderly or retired couples. When one spouse needs nursing care this can seriously diminish the couple’s lifetime savings. In 1988, Congress enacted plans to prevent the spouse that is still living in the community from experiencing what is known as "spousal impoverishment" where most or all of their income and resources are subsumed by the cost of their partner’s care.
2020 Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment Rates
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its Spousal Impoverishment Standards for 2020 in late December and the rates differ somewhat from earlier predictions by legal experts who based their annual estimates on the consumer price index for urban consumers at the start of the fall season.
You can click this link to download a pdf of CMS’s complete chart of the 2020 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards. For reference and comparison, last year’s standards can be viewed here.
The official spousal impoverishment allowances for 2020 are as follows. All are effective as of 1/1/2020 and apply to all states except Alaska and Hawaii.
Resource allowances
Minimum Community Spouse Resource Allowance: $25,728
Maximum Community Spouse Resource Allowance: $128,640
Maintenance Allowances
Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance: $3,216
Minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance for all states except Alaska and Hawaii stays at $2,113.75 while the allowance for Alaska will stay at $2,641.25 Hawaii will remain at $2,432.5 until July 1, 2020.
Home Equity Limits
These have increased slightly since last year;
Minimum: $595,000
Maximum: $893,000
How we can help
We offer a suite of services for Medicaid clients, attorneys and advisors including Crisis Medicaid Case Analysis, Pre-Planning LTC Case analysis and Valuations of Non-Compliant Annuities.
If you would like to learn more about any of these services get in touch with us today.