Income Disregards and Deductions for the Family Coverage Group (Parents, Caretaker Relatives, and their Spouses Group - effective 01-01-14) 510-05-45-35

(Revised 10/01/13 ML #3390)

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(N.D.A.C. Section 75-02-02.1-19.1)

 

For Applications and Reviews Received From July 1, 1997 through December 31, 2013 requiring benefits prior to January 1, 2014:

Medically needy income disregards and deductions are allowed for the Family Coverage group except as specified in this section.

  1. The following medically needy deductions are not allowed:
  1. The $30 work training allowance; and
  2. The earned income deductions available to applicants and recipients who are not aged, blind, and disabled.

 

  1. The following disregards and deductions are allowed from earned income:
  1. An employment expense allowance equal to $120 of earned income is deducted from the gross earned income of each employed member of the Medicaid unit;
  2. For each employed member of the unit, a disregard equal to 1/3 of the balance of earned income (after deducting the employment expense allowance) is disregarded.

 

  1. The following additional deductions are allowed from earned or unearned income:
  1. The cost of an essential service considered necessary for the well-being of a family is allowed as a deduction as needed. The service must be of such nature that the family, because of infirmity, illness, or other extenuating circumstance, cannot perform independently. An essential service is intended to refer to such needs as housekeeping duties or child care during a parent’s illness or hospitalization, attendant services, and extraordinary costs of accompanying a member of the family unit to a distant medical or rehabilitation facility, etc. This deduction is not allowed if any third party, including TANF, pays it; and
  2. When the case includes a stepparent who is not eligible, or when a caretaker who is under age 18 lives at home with both parents and the parents are not eligible under the Family Coverage group, a deduction is allowed for amounts actually being paid by the stepparent or parents to any other persons not living in the home who are, or could be, claimed by the stepparent/parents as dependents for federal income tax purposes.

 

For Applications and Reviews Received on or After October 1, 2013 for benefits beginning January 1, 2014:

As with all groups covered under the Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) methodologies 5% of the Federal Poverty Level will be disregarded from the modified adjusted gross income. To apply this uniformly, the appropriate income levels are increased by 5% of the Federal Poverty Level.

 

     
  Note: The 5% disregard is applied only to the highest income level under which the individual may be eligible.
     
  Example: Mary Smith applies for herself and her daughter, Maggie. Mary’s income is 55% of the federal poverty level. The first coverage Mary may be eligible under would be the Parents, Caretakers and their Spouses group, which has a 54% federal poverty level. Because Mary Smith can also qualify for the single adult group, which has an income level of 133% poverty, the 5% is not added to the Parent, Caretaker and spouse income level but rather to the adult group, which would increase that income level in Mary’s case to 138% federal poverty level.