Treatment of Income in Community Spouse Nursing Home Cases
The community spouse is allowed a community spouse minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance (csmmmna) of $2,610.00 (for the year 2008) a month. This monthly amount represents how much of the nursing home’s income can be added to the community spouse’s income where the community spouse’s separate income is below the $2,610.00 a month figure when Illinois Department of Human Services has approved the resident for Medicaid, and is calculating how much of his or her income may be diverted to the community spouse. If the spouses’ combined incomes total $2,610.00 or less, then the entire amount goes to the community spouse. If the community spouse, on her own, has less than $2,610.00 per month but the two incomes total more than $2,610.00, the excess above $2,610.00 goes to the nursing home, and a month goes to the community spouse. If the community spouse has her own income that already exceeds $2,610.00 a month, then (s)he will be assessed a “responsible relative liability” that is based on a sliding scale that appears in the Workers Action Guide of the Illinois Department of Human Services. Recently the intermediate court of appeals in Springfield upheld the use of this table in the case of Poindexter v. State, No. 4. 05- 0709, issued May 17, 2007.