003.11(A) REDUCTION OF RESOURCES TO ESTABLISH EARLIER MEDICAID EFFECTIVE DATE.

An applicant or client may do a reduction of resources to establish an earlier Medicaid effective date if he or she has outstanding medical bills. However, eligibility may not begin earlier than the third month before the month of application. In order for an applicant or client with excess resources to establish an earlier effective date, he or she must pay all of the excess resources on medical bills incurred no earlier than the third month before the month of application. The medical expense does not have to be a Medicaid-covered service. The applicant or client should pay on the oldest medical bills incurred within the retroactive period and continue paying bills until the amount of the excess resources has been expended. Once it has been determined there are medical expenses in the retroactive period, the applicant or client is given 90 days to complete the reduction of resources on medical expenses. Medicaid eligibility may begin with the first day of the month in which the last medical bill was paid, which reduced the resources to the allowable limit. Expenditures for medical bills must be verified. If an applicant has excess resources in the month of application, it is not necessary to verify resources in any of the retroactive months. The spend-down of the excess resources from the month of application is all which is necessary. If the applicant does not have excess resources in the month of application, resources must be verified in the oldest retroactive month in which the applicant has outstanding medical bills. If there are excess resources during this retroactive month, only this amount of excess resources must be used to complete the resource spend-down. Procedures related to documenting a resource spend-down are available in the appendix to this title.