Understanding the Medicaid Resource Limit

When determining if somebody is financially eligible for long term Medicaid benefits in NJ, there are 3 elements considered. Income, resources, and gifting

In this article, we are going to focus on the topic of resources.

Countable resources include, but are not limited to, Real estate, bank accounts, stocks, annuities and the cash value of life insurance policies.

Every situation may be unique in what may be exempt from being counted as a resource, and a Medicaid professional should be consulted.

For example for a single applicant that owns a home but currently resides in a Nursing Home (with no reasonable expectation of returning home), Medicaid requires that the home be sold and the proceeds spent down in order to be eligible. However, if this same individual still lives in his home, or if he lives in a Nursing Home, but expects to return to his home, or even if he does not expect to return home, but has a spouse in the community, Medicaid will not require that the home be sold.

In the year 2021, the resource limit for an individual applicant who is single is $2000. For a couple applying jointly the resource limit is $3000. For an individual applicant that is married, the resource limit is $2000, however, the spouse is entitled to keep all of the combined assets up to $26,076 and half of the combined assets up to $130,380. Meaning, regardless of how much there is in combined assets, the maximum amount the community spouse can keep is $130,380.

Resource eligibility is determined at the very first moment of the first day of the month. If the resources exceed the limit at that time you will be deemed ineligible for that full month. If you were under the resource limit at that time, you would be eligible for that month even if during the month your resources increased to over the limit.

It is of utmost importance to keep an eye on account balances across all accounts at the end of each month to make sure that the total amount does not exceed the resource limit.