Effective Date

HHSC disregards income for Medicaid eligibility purposes the first month that:

a valid written QIT trust instrument is signed and properly executed;

a QIT account with the beneficiary's Social Security number is set up; and

enough of the beneficiary's income is placed into the QIT account to reduce any remaining income below the special income limit.

The QIT may be set up with any or all sources of a beneficiary's income, but an entire income source must be deposited. In some cases, the entire source(s) may not be available to open the QIT account because part of the person’s monthly income may have been used to pay expenses before the date the QIT is established. For the initial month, a partial deposit of the income the QIT is established. It will not invalidate the QIT and the entire amount of the income source(s) will be disregarded from countable income for that month. The entire amount of the income source(s) for the established QIT must be deposited into the QIT account in all later months or the QIT is considered invalidated.

These actions may occur before the beneficiary applies for Medicaid. If the person has set up a qualifying QIT, the effective date of the income disregard may be up to three months before the application file date if all other program eligibility requirements are met.