SR 24-05 Dated 02/24 |
STATE OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES - Bureau of family assistance (bfa)
INTER-DEPARTMENT COMMUNICATION
FROM THE OFFICE OF: |
Director of Division of Medicaid Services (DMS), Henry Lipman |
DMS SIGNATURE DATE: |
February 12, 2024 |
FROM THE OFFICE OF: |
Director of Division of Economic Stability (DES), Karen E. Hebert |
DES SIGNATURE DATE: |
February 14, 2024 |
AT (OFFICE): |
Division of Medicaid Services Bureau of Family Assistance |
TO: |
All BFA Staff All DMS Staff |
SUBJECT: |
Treatment of Monetary Contributions Received for Medical Assistance |
EFFECTIVE DATE: |
Upon Release |
SUMMARY
This SR releases guidance regarding the treatment of monetary contributions received for Medical Assistance.
POLICY
MAGI-based Methodologies:
Monetary gifts are not included in taxable income and are not counted in a MAGI-based income determination. This is true whether the gift is one-time or recurring regardless of how the recipient spends the gift.
The principle for determining that a contribution is a gift and not countable is that the contribution must be made out of “detached generosity”, meaning that the person giving the contribution has no interest in receiving anything in return.
Non-MAGI based Methodologies:
Regular and recurring monetary gifts an individual receives that can be used for any purpose, including the payment of rent, are treated as countable unearned income. If an individual receives a non-frequent or one-time monetary gift, the entire amount received is treated as excluded income.
FIELD STAFF
When an individual is receiving monetary contributions on a regular basis:
· MAGI-based categories of medical assistance
- Enter the amount and frequency of the contributions received in the “Unearned Income” screen with the type listed as “Contributions”; and
- Unearned income will not be counted.
· Non-MAGI based categories of medical assistance
- Enter the amount and frequency of the contributions received in the “Unearned Income” screen with the type “Contributions”; and
- Unearned income will be counted.
Note: Non-MAGI categories only count monetary gifts that are not expected to be paid back.
NEW HEIGHTS & NH EASY SYSTEMS PROCEDURES
New HEIGHTS system has been updated to exclude monetary contributions that are entered in the “Unearned Income” screen, for MAGI-based categories of medical assistance.
POLICY MANUAL REVISIONS
Revised Medical Assistance Manual Topics
CLIENT NOTIFICATION
No client notification is planned or needed.
TRAINING
No special training is planned or needed.
DISPOSITION
This SR may be destroyed or deleted after its contents have been noted and the revised manual topics released by this SR have been posted to the Online Manuals.
DISTRIBUTION
This SR will be distributed according to the electronic distribution list for BFA policy releases. This SR, and revised Online Manuals, will be available for agency staff in the Online Manual Library, and for public access on the Internet at https://www.dhhs.nh.gov/sr_htm/sr.htm, effective March 1, 2024.
BFA/DMS: 24-05 (sl)