Updated Figures for 2009.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)  has released the community spouse resource allowance and the maximum monthly maintenance needs allowance for 2009. The new minimum CSRA is $21,912 and the new maximum is $109,560. The new maximum monthly maintenance needs allowance is $2,739. The minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance remains $1,750 until July 1, 2009.  

The new figures are effective January 1, 2009, and reflect an increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) of 4.9 percent from September 2007 to September 2008.

Protections for the Healthy Spouse: the community spouse resource allowance (CSRA) and the maximum monthly maintenance needs allowance (MMMNA).

The Medicaid law provides special protections for the spouse of a nursing home resident to make sure he or she has the minimum support needed to continue to live in the community. In general, the community spouse may keep one half of the couple’s total “countable” assets up to a maximum of $104,400 (in 2008). Called the “community spouse resource allowance,” this is the most that a state may allow a community spouse to retain without a hearing or a court order. The least that a state may allow a community spouse to retain is $20,880 (in 2008). The spouse in the nursing home may keep no more than $2,000.00.

In all circumstances, the income of the community spouse will continue undisturbed; he or she will not have to use any of his or her income to support the nursing home spouse receiving Medicaid benefits. But what if most of the couple’s income is in the name of the institutionalized spouse, and the community spouse’s income is not enough to live on? In such cases, the community spouse is entitled to some or all of the monthly income of the institutionalized spouse. How much the community spouse is entitled to depends on what the Medicaid agency determines to be a minimum income level for the community spouse. This figure, known as the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance or MMMNA, is calculated for each community spouse according to a complicated formula based on his or her housing costs. The MMMNA may range from a low of $1,711 (from July 1, 2007, through June 30, 2008)) to a high of $2,610 a month (in 2008). If the community spouse’s own income falls below his or her MMMNA, the shortfall is made up from the nursing home spouse’s income.