When clients come to McIntyre Elder Law because one spouse is in need of
Medicaid Crisis Planning, the focus is on the spouse in immediate need for nursing home care. With the average cost of nursing home care rising to $10,000+ per month, it makes sense that the “healthy spouse”, known as the community spouse, wants to take every step necessary to qualify their spouse for Medicaid. Oftentimes they set their own financial goals and planning needs aside. For the community
spouse, what comes after crisis planning is just as important as the crisis planning was for the spouse in need.
During the Medicaid qualification and application period, both spouses are looked at as a unit for eligibility purposes. The spouse that is applying must be
individually eligible, but the community spouse must also qualify financially to obtain Medicaid benefits for the spouse in need. The community spouse is allotted a certain amount of assets they can keep, which is known as the community spouse resource allowance.
The community spouse must stay within the allowance up until the spouse that is applying has been approved for Medicaid. There are many planning options
available to do just that.
