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Medicaid Eligibility Manual Abbreviations/Acronyms/Definitions

Issued November 13, 2025 Page 3 of A-200 Replaces January 27, 2025

Revised/added text indicated by underscore Deleted text indicated by “**”

B

Basic Needs – Food, clothing, and shelter.

Basic Needs Allowance – Relating to beneficiaries of HCBS, an allowance equal to three times the SSI (FBR).

Beneficiary - Anyone for whom Medicaid eligibility has been established and for whom a case has been added to the LaMEDS eligibility file.

Blood Products Litigants – Former SSI beneficiaries who lost eligibility for cash assistance because of a payment made under the Susan Walker vs. Bayer Corporation et al. settlement.

Breast and Cervical Cancer Program – A program that provides full Medicaid benefits to uninsured women who are identified through the CDC National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, and diagnosed with either breast or cervical cancer or a pre-cancerous condition in need of treatment.

Budgeting – Performing specific steps and calculations to establish income eligibility for Medicaid.

Burial Insurance – Insurance that can be used to pay the burial expenses of the insured, that lists the covered services for the burial, and will have no cash surrender value if the policy was issued prior to 1978. If policy was issued after 1978, it may have a small cash surrender value of 3 percent.

Burial Space – A gravesite, crypt, mausoleum, urn, vault, casket, headstone, or other repository that is customarily and traditionally used for the remains of a deceased person.

Buy-In Program – A Medicaid program, known as “buy-in,” that pays Medicare Part A and Part B premiums for selected groups of Medicaid beneficiaries. The purpose of “buy-in” is to reduce Medicaid expenditures for certain beneficiaries by purchasing Medicare coverage, thus shifting Medicaid expenditures to Medicare.

C

Caretaker Relative – A relative of a dependent child by blood, adoption, or marriage with whom the child is living, who assumes primary responsibility for the child's care.