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525 (07/2026) Chapter 2:Eligibility • Section 10: Long-Term Care (LTC) services When an individual in a nonstandard living arrangement gets legally married, the continuous period of care start date is the date of marriage. Whether the couple lives together or not, determine if the couple’s assets make the institutionalized spouse eligible or ineligible for OSIPM (not including EPD) as follows: Step 1. Determine what the couple’s combined countable assets were at the beginning of the most recent continuous period of care. (The beginning of the continuous period of care is the first month of that continuous period.) • Determine which of the couple’s assets were countable resources. The rules used to determine whether a community spouse’s assets are countable are the same rules used with respect to an OSIPM applicant or recipient. • Combine both spouses’ countable resources. • At this point in the computation, the couple’s combined countable resources are considered available equally to both spouses. Step 2. Calculate one half of what the couple’s combined countable resources were at the beginning of the continuous period of care. Treat the community spouse’s half of the couple’s combined resources as a constant amount when determining eligibility. Step 3. Determine the community spouse’s resource allowance (CSRA). The CSRA is the largest of the four following amounts: • The community spouse’s half of what the couple’s combined countable resources were at the beginning of the continuous period of care, but not more than $162,660 • $32,532 (the state community spouse minimum resource allowance) • A court-ordered community spouse resource allowance.
In this rule, the term court-ordered community spouse resource allowance means a court-ordered CSRA that, in relation to the income generated, would raise the community spouse’s income to a court-approved monthly maintenance needs allowance. In cases where the individual became an institutionalized spouse on or after February 8, 2006, this asset allowance must use all of the individual’s available income and the community spouse’s income to meet the community spouse’s monthly maintenance needs allowance before any resources are used to generate interest income to meet the allowance. • After considering the income of the community spouse and the income available from the institutionalized spouse, an amount which, if invested, would raise the community spouse’s income to the monthly maintenance needs allowance.
This is the amount required to purchase a single premium immediate annuity to make up the shortfall and is considered only if the amount described in (1) below is larger than the amount described in (2) below; it is the difference between the following: 1. The monthly income allowance computed as follows: • Step A — Determine the maintenance needs allowance. $2,705 is added to the amount over $811.50 that is needed to pay monthly shelter expenses for the principal residence of