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• The person's spouse is not living in the home or apartment. Deduct this amount for no more than six months. If the person is re-admitted to the institution, grant a six-month continuance. A physician must again certify that the person is likely to return to the home or apartment within six months. The home maintenance allowance can be granted at any time. It is not limited to the first six months the person resides in the medical institution. Example 1 Bob entered a nursing home in June 2013 as a private pay patient. In June 2014, he qualifies for Medicaid and is potentially eligible for the home maintenance allowance. Bob's doctor says he is expected to return home by November 2014. He is eligible for a home maintenance deduction from his income, when determining the amount of his income available for his cost of care, starting in June 2014.

Note The home maintenance allowance may only be given for Institutional Medicaid. It does not apply to HCBW Medicaid. 15.7.2 Special Exempt Income Special exempt income includes: • Income used for supporting others (see SECTION 15.7.2.1 SUPPORT PAYMENTS). • Court-ordered attorney fees (see SECTION 15.7.2.3 FEES TO GUARDIANS OR ATTORNEYS). • Court-ordered guardian and guardian ad litem fees (see SECTION 15.7.2.3 FEES TO GUARDIANS OR ATTORNEYS). • Expenses associated with establishing and maintaining a guardianship (see SECTION 15.7.2.3 FEES TO GUARDIANS OR ATTORNEYS). • Expenses associated with a self-support plan (see SECTION 15.7.2.2 PLAN TO ACHIEVE SELF- SUPPORT). • IRWE (see SECTION 15.7.4 IMPAIRMENT-RELATED WORK EXPENSES). • Maintaining a home or apartment (see SECTION 15.7.1 MAINTAINING HOME OR APARTMENT). • Costs associated with real property listed for sale (see SECTION 16.2 ASSETS AVAILABILITY). For specific exemptions, see SECTION 15.3 EXEMPT AND DISREGARDED INCOME. 15.7.2.1 Support Payments Support payments are payments that a Medicaid member makes to another person outside the FTG for the purpose of supporting and maintaining that person. Support payments are either court-ordered (see SECTION 15.7.2.1.1 COURT-ORDERED or non-court-ordered (see SECTION 15.7.2.1.2 NON-COURT-ORDERED). Include the support payment amount as part of an institutionalized person's monthly need (see SECTION 27.6 ILTC MONTHLY NEED) and cost of care (see SECTION 27.7 COST OF CARE CALCULATION). A person in the fiscal group who has legal responsibility for a person in a nursing home may be paying that person's patient liability. If so, deduct this amount from the group's income. Note Support payments are different from the community spouse income allocation (see SECTION 18.6.2 COMMUNITY SPOUSE INCOME ALLOCATION for more information).