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COMAR 10.09.24.04

319 State of Maryland Medical Assistance Manual Revised July 2012

Residence may be verified by a rent book, rent receipt, gas/electric or telephone bill, statement from the landlord, etc. Whatever is used, it is essential that the verifications source indicate that the applicant lives at a specific address. The address must be complete and the case manager must determine if the address is in Maryland. For the homeless person, the case manager must establish that the person has no permanent address in the Maryland or in any other state. Decisions as to whether or not such persons are Maryland residents must be evaluated on a case by case basis.

Age-A birth certificate is only of the acceptable methods for establishing date of birth. There are a number of other methods such as insurance policies or baptismal, confirmation, marriage, Social Security, employment, school, or military service records. However, when an age limit is reached within the calendar year, the A/R must also provide proof of the actual month of birth.

Note: The Department of Juvenile Justice Services (DJS) representative for a child who is an applicant for medical Assistance is not required to provide verifications of the child’s age. It may be presumed that the child is less than 21 years of age based on the child’s commitment to the DJS.

Earned income for person-other that the self-employed must be verified by pay stubs or a complete written, signed, and dated statement from the employer showing weekly, biweekly, etc. gross earnings and expenses and or a copy of the most recent valid tax return. Life Insurance- When the applicant has life insurance with cash value; a statement must be obtained from the insurance company on company letterhead that verifies all necessary information-current cash surrender value, policy number, policy owner. For the applicant’s initial eligibility determination, however, the case manager may use the current cash value from an amortization table in the life insurance policy, if the policy has a table reflecting the estimated current value. Then, verification of the actual current cash value by the insurance company is required no later than the first redetermination of eligibility.

If mail to the insurance company is undeliverable and there is no way to contact the company, the Maryland Insurance Commission should be contacted to help locate the company or its successor. If the company cannot be found, any information available on the cash value of the life insurance may be used. If no information can be obtained on the cash value, the life insurance is excluded as a resource. If the A/A makes a good faith effort to obtain information on the cash value, the eligibility determination is not delayed or denied due to the inability to determine the current cash value of life insurance.

Representative- Since the Medical Assistance program does not require a representative to be legally authorized by a court in order to act on the applicant’s behalf, it is not necessary to obtain verification of guardianship or Power of Attorney. Signatures on the Medical Assistance application are sufficient to authorize a representative acting on the applicant’s behalf.

(3)Declaration of Information if Confirmed Impediment to Timely Verifications

At times, an application for Medical Assistance is filed and verifications of a specific factor of eligibility cannot be promptly production for reasons beyond the applicant’s control. When neither