Increase in Medicaid Personal Needs Allowance

Included in the recently implemented state budget is an increase to the personal needs allowance for nursing facility residents. The budget reads:  

“The Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Health Benefits (DHB), is directed to increase the personal needs allowance from thirty dollars ($30.00) to seventy dollars ($70.00) for individual Medicaid recipients who are institutionalized and from sixty dollars ($60.00) to one hundred forty dollars ($140.00) for married couples who are Medicaid recipients when both spouses are institutionalized.”  

Before this important update can be implemented, it will need to be approved by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). When NCHCFA receives additional information on this issue, we will publish it in our weekly newsletter, UPDATE. 

The legislature has appropriated additional funding to make sure that the increase in the personal needs allowance does not negatively impact nursing facility reimbursement.