CMS Releases Guidance to States on Spousal Impoverishment Extension

In a Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services Informational Bulletin released on Aug. 15, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) outlines that states must continue to apply spousal impoverishment standards to married applicants and beneficiaries of Home and Community-Based Services through September 2027.

These standards were initially slated to expire in 2018 but have been subsequently extended in multiple congressional actions, most recently in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023. States can reference prior guidance issued in 2015. Read the entire bulletin here.

The change to section 1924’s definition of an institutionalized spouse became effective Jan. 1, 2014. This change affects initial eligibility determinations and, in some circumstances, redeterminations of eligibility.

Minnesota guidelines for spousal impoverishment are found in 256B.059.

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