16.2 Assets Availability

16.2.1 Assets Availability Introduction
16.2.2 Real Property

16.2.1 Assets Availability Introduction

An asset is available when:

It can be sold, transferred, or disposed of by the owner or the owner’s representative, and
The owner has a legal right to the money obtained from sale of the asset, and
The owner has the legal ability to make the money available for support and maintenance, and
The asset can be made available in less than 30 days.

Consider an asset as unavailable if either:

The memberA recipient of Medicaid; formerly referred to as a "client." lacks the ability to provide legal access to the assets, and
No one else can access the assets, and
A process has been started to get legal access to the assets.

Or, when the owner or owner’s representative documents that the asset will not be available for 30 days or more, and the process has been started to obtain the assets.

Use the criteria above to determine whether an asset was available in a backdate month unless an asset is deemed unavailable in the month of application because it will not be available for 30 or more days (considered unavailable in any or all backdate months).

Note:

Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs) are not an available resource. DHS’s Third Party Liability Unit will consider an HRA to be a potential source of payment for health care services covered by Medicaid.

Example 1:

Sylvia has life insurance that she cannot convert to cash within 30 days. She has a letter from the insurance company stating when she will receive the money. It becomes available the day she receives the money. Enter an expected change in CWWCARES Worker Web with the date the asset is expected to be available.

Note:

An unavailable asset may still be considered when determining whether an institutionalized person has divested (see Section 17.2.10 Unavailability).

16.2.2 Real Property

Non-exempt real property (see Section 16.8 Real Property) is unavailable when:

The person who owns the property lists it for sale with a realtor.

If an institutionalized person owns property that is unavailable because it is listed for sale, he or she can use some of his or her income to maintain the property until it is sold. Allow minimal heat and electricity costs so as to avoid physical damage to the property while it is waiting to be sold. Also allow a minimum amount of property insurance coverage. Do not allow taxes and mortgage payments; they must be paid from the proceeds of the sale.

The non-exempt real property is unavailable and minimal maintenance costs are allowed as long as the person is making a good faith effort to sell the property at current market value.

If the member refuses a fair market value offer(s) while the property is listed for sale with a realtor, the member is no longer making a good faith effort to sell the property. In this case, the property is an available asset and minimal maintenance costs will no longer be allowed.
A joint owner who is outside the fiscal test group refuses to sell the property.

When the member is a co-owner of the property with someone outside the fiscal group, you must determine whether it is owned as a joint tenancy or tenancy-in-common.

Joint tenants have a right of survivorship. That is, upon the death of one joint tenant, the other inherits the share of the deceased. A joint tenant's interest may not be sold without forcing the sale of the entire property.

Tenants-in-common has no right of survivorship. A tenant-in-common may bequeath his or her share of the property to anyone he or she chooses. He or she may also sell his or her share during his or her lifetime.

This page last updated in Release Number: 22-02
Release Date: 08/01/2022
Effective Date: 08/01/2022