Arizona Long Term Care System, mostly referred to as ‘ALTCS’, is a state funded Medicaid program which can help you and your family pay for valuable long-term care. You must meet the eligibility requirements to gain ALTCS benefits, however if you don’t currently qualify that doesn’t mean that you can’t become eligible. Using Federally-approved strategies, we can help you become financially eligible without any risk to your assets even if you are over the financial eligibility limits listed below.
Non-Financial (Medical) ALTCS Eligibility Requirements
To meet the non-financial ALTCS eligibility requirements, you must:
- Be a US citizen or qualified immigrant
- Have a social security number or apply for one
- Be a resident of Arizona at the time you apply for ALTCS
- Pass the Pre-Admission Screening (PAS) Assessment. This is a medical assessment based on your medical history, and whether you are sufficiently challenged with the activities of daily living (ADLs) and/or you are cognitively impaired due to conditions such as a stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s Disease, etc.
Financial Eligibility Requirements
You must meet ALTCS financial eligibility requirements. These are:
- As an applicant, you must not have more than $2,000 in spendable assets in your name.
- Your spouse, assuming they are not on ALTCS, may not exceed the Community Spouse Resource Deduction (CRSD). This is calculated with the following process:
- Divide the countable resources owned by both spouses in half to determine the “spousal share”.
- If the “spousal share” is less than $25,728 (effective January 2020), the CSRD amount will be $25,728.
- If the “spousal share” is more than $128,640 (effective January 2020), the CSRD amount will be $128,640.
- If the “spousal share” is more than $25,728 and less than $128,640, then the amount that was calculated as the “spousal share” will be the community spouse’s CSRD.
- As an applicant, you must not have monthly income of more than $2,349 (double that to $4,698 if you’re married).
You can also view the state released Arizona AHCCCS Medicaid eligibility requirements on the AHCCCS website, including those for Long term care (ALTCS).
Countable Income and Resources
In Arizona, ALTCS will consider the following as income: wages, Social Security, pensions, Supplemental Security Income, annuity payments, and disability or retirement pensions.
Spendable assets or resources include:
- Real property (vacation homes, time shares, rental properties) that aren’t your primary residence
- Cash, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, certificates of deposit
- Retirement accounts such as IRAs & 401(k)
- The cash/surrender value of life insurance policies
- Additional vehicles other than one exempt vehicle
- Boats, jet skis, snow mobiles or other forms of transportation
Transferring Wealth and the Five-Year Lookback
You may not gift or transfer any asset which may be considered a “spendable” resource for a period of five years before you apply for ALTCS benefits. If you do, you will incur a “transfer penalty”. In 2020, the transfer penalty will delay your ability to obtain ALTCS benefits for one month for every $7,429.58 of value you transferred in the past five years. If you think you may have transferred spendable resources in the past five years, contact us immediately. We can help you create a plan which may minimize or eliminate the transfer penalty.
It’s very important to note that we specialize in helping people become financially eligible for ALTCS even if they are above the asset or income limits. We use a variety of federally approved strategies to accomplish this. Contact us today for a free consultation!