2019 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards

CMCS INFORMATIONAL BULLETIN
DATE: November 13, 2018
FROM: Mary Mayhew, Deputy Administrator and Director
Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services

SUBJECT: 2019 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards

This CMCS informational bulletin is to provide an update on the 2019 Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Spousal Impoverishment Standards.

Certain Medicaid income and resource standards are adjusted beginning each January in accordance with changes in the SSI federal benefit rate (FBR) and the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Many states offer, for example, categorical eligibility to individuals who are not receiving SSI but who meet the financial eligibility requirements of the program, as authorized by 1902(a)(10)(A)(ii)(I) of the Social Security Act (“the Act”). Similarly, most states have adopted the “special income level” institutional eligibility category authorized under Section 1902(a)(10)(A)(ii)(V) of the Act, the maximum income standard for which is 300% of the SSI FBR. Additionally, certain eligibility standards relating to coverage of long-term services and supports, including the home equity limitation in Section 1917(f) of the Act and elements of the spousal impoverishment statute in Section 1924, are increased each year based on increases in the CPI for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).

Included with this informational bulletin is the 2019 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards chart that displays the new standards. These standards are also available on Medicaid.gov at https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/eligibility/spousal-impoverishment/index.html. Please update your standards in accordance with this information for the provisions that become effective on January 1, 2019.

If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Gene Coffey at
410-786-2234 or Gene.Coffey@cms.hhs.gov.

https://www.medicaid.gov/federal-policy-Guidance/index.html