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Division of Welfare and Supportive Services F-225.1.3 Medical Assistance Manual HOME AND COMMUNITY BASED SERVICES 23 Oct 01 MTL 04/23 Treatment of Resources

such as a legal guardian, power of attorney, etc. Being an authorized representative does not give that person legal authority.

If the spouse of the customer makes a portion of his/her resources available to the customer, that portion is counted as a resource to the customer.

c. Court Order

When a court order equally divides resources between spouses, only the portion the court order specifies as the customer’s is counted when determining eligibility, UNLESS the spouse makes a portion of his/her resources available to the customer. The portion made available to the customer is counted as a resource in determining eligibility.

If the customer has a court order dividing resources unequally a copy of the court order must be sent to the Chief of Eligibility & Payments for a decision on whether DWSS can recognize the court order.

d. Inaccessible Resources

The cash values of resources which are not legally available to the household are exempt. If the Medicaid applicant/recipient or authorized representative is able to verify a resource is unavailable due to the customer’s inability to access the resource due to incapacity, and no one else has the ability to access the resource on their behalf, exempt the value of the resource as long as reasonable and timely steps are being taken to access the account on the customer’s behalf, such as a referral to the public guardian’s office. Once the resource becomes accessible, the resource becomes countable and eligibility must be reevaluated for future months.

F-225.2 Resource Provisions for Spousal Impoverishment Cases

This section applies to all persons who are likely to begin a "continuous period of services" under a HCBW on or after September 30, 1989 and who have a spouse in an independent living situation (e.g., the spouse is not receiving HCBW services or is not residing in a nursing facility).

If the community spouse dies prior to an eligibility decision, spousal impoverishment rules do not apply. Treat the case as a non-spousal case and apply the treatment of resource rules accordingly for all requested months of coverage.