All applicants for Long Term Care Medical Assistance must pass a resource test. This resource test determines whether or not an individual's resources are under the required resource limits.
In the case of a blind or disabled institutionalized child, the resources of the parents are deemed to the child in the month of eligibility. The child must then qualify under specific Long Term Care resource limits (usually $2000). A single institutionalized individual must also qualify under the same resource limits. Each member of a couple, where both spouses are institutionalized, is treated separately. The income of only the institutionalized spouse is counted against the income limit but the resources of both spouses are counted together and compared to twice the resource limit for a single individual.
If the financial unit determined is 'institutionalized individual with community spouse', and the individual was institutionalized before October 1989, the system executes the same rules as for a single institutionalized individual. If the individual was institutionalized on or after October 1989, spousal impoverishment processing is performed. Spousal Impoverishment calculations are performed by rules. The system determines the value of all countable assets belonging to the institutionalized individual and the community spouse on a specific date called the Assessment Date. The rules determine an appropriate spousal share for each spouse. Generally the spousal share is half the couple's resources on the assessment date; however, there are limits and if the spousal share is below the minimum or above the maximum, the spouse's share may be increased or decreased. This is called the Community Spouse Share. If the institutionalized individual's resources are less than the resource limit, then the individual is eligible and not protected period is required. If the institutionalized individual's resources are over the limit (usually $2000), the resources are compared to the resource limit plus the Community Spouse Share. If this resource test is passed, resources must be transferred.