Georgia Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment 2026: CSRA Guide

Georgia Medicaid spousal impoverishment rules protect the spouse who stays home when the other enters long-term care. In 2026, the at-home (community) spouse can keep between $32,532 and $162,660 in countable assets and an income floor of $2,705.00 per month. This guide explains exactly how those protections work through Georgia Medicaid.1

What Georgia Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment Rules Cover

When one spouse needs nursing-facility care or a home-based long-term-care waiver, the couple must meet strict asset and income limits to qualify. Without protections, the healthy spouse at home could be left nearly penniless while paying for a partner's care. Federal spousal impoverishment law, codified at 42 U.S.C. 1396r-5 (Section 1924 of the Social Security Act), prevents that by reserving a portion of the couple's resources and income for the community spouse.1

Georgia applies these federal rules through the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH), which sets Medicaid policy, and the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), which determines eligibility. The two protections are the Community Spouse Resource Allowance (CSRA) on assets and the Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MMMNA) on income.

These protections apply only to Georgia's long-term-care pathways: Nursing Facility Medicaid and the state's four Section 1915(c) waivers (the Elderly and Disabled Waiver Program (EDWP), which delivers services through the Community Care Services Program (CCSP) and Service Options Using Resources in a Community Environment (SOURCE) models, the Independent Care Waiver Program (ICWP), the New Options Waiver (NOW), and the Comprehensive Supports Waiver, or COMP). They do not apply to Aged, Blind, and Disabled (ABD) medical-only Medicaid, MAGI categories, or Medicare Savings Programs.4

The Snapshot Date

Every spousal impoverishment calculation starts from the snapshot date, the first day of a continuous period of institutionalization or waiver services lasting at least 30 days. This is usually the date of nursing-facility admission, the date of a hospital admission that leads into a 30-day-plus nursing stay, or the date waiver services begin.

The snapshot date matters because all countable assets of both spouses are valued as of that date, no matter how much later the Medicaid application is filed. Renaming a joint account into the community spouse's name after the snapshot date does not change the snapshot-date count. Preserve bank, brokerage, and asset statements dated on or near the snapshot date, because DFCS uses them to set the CSRA.1

The Georgia Medicaid Spousal Impoverishment CSRA

The Community Spouse Resource Allowance determines how much of the couple's combined countable assets the at-home spouse may keep.

Calculating the CSRA. DFCS takes a snapshot of the couple's total countable assets on the snapshot date. The community spouse keeps half of that amount, subject to a federal floor and ceiling. Georgia applies the full federal range: the protected share is never less than $32,532 and never more than $162,660 in 2026.1

• Minimum CSRA ($32,532). Even if half the couple's assets falls below this figure, the at-home spouse keeps at least $32,532.1
• Maximum CSRA ($162,660). Even if half the couple's assets exceeds this amount, the protected share is capped here.1

In practice: a couple with $120,000 in countable assets leaves the community spouse $60,000 (half). A couple with $40,000 leaves the community spouse the full $40,000, because the minimum applies. A couple with $400,000 leaves the community spouse $162,660, because the maximum caps the share.1

Countable vs. exempt assets. Not everything the couple owns counts toward the snapshot. Assets that are exempt include:

• The primary home, as long as the community spouse lives there (subject to the home-equity limit below)
• One vehicle used for transportation
• Household goods and personal belongings
• Prepaid funeral and burial arrangements
• Term life insurance with no cash value

Most financial accounts, second properties, and the institutionalized spouse's retirement accounts count as countable assets.

The institutionalized spouse's share. After the community spouse's CSRA is set aside, the applicant must spend their remaining countable assets down to Georgia's $2,000 individual resource limit before Medicaid will pay for care.3

Income Protections: The MMMNA

The MMMNA is the income counterpart to the CSRA. It sets the minimum monthly income the at-home spouse is entitled to keep so the couple's income is not entirely consumed by the cost of the institutionalized spouse's care.

How the MMMNA range works. The federal MMMNA floor is $2,705.00 per month (effective July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2027; the floor resets each July). The ceiling is $4,066.50 per month, effective January 1, 2026. Georgia follows these federal figures directly.1

If the community spouse already has income at or above the floor from their own sources (Social Security, a pension, investments), no income is diverted from the Medicaid recipient. If the community spouse's own income falls short, they receive a monthly allocation from the institutionalized spouse's income, the Community Spouse Monthly Income Allowance (CSMIA), to bring them up to the MMMNA.1

The excess-shelter adjustment. A community spouse whose shelter costs are high can qualify for an MMMNA above the floor. When the at-home spouse's shelter costs (rent or mortgage principal and interest, property taxes, homeowner's insurance, and a utility allowance) exceed the federal community spouse monthly housing allowance, which is $811.50 per month effective July 1, 2026, the excess is added to the base allowance, raising the MMMNA up to the $4,066.50 ceiling. That housing-allowance figure resets each July 1 alongside the MMMNA floor, so use the standard in effect for the period you are budgeting.1

The family allowance. If a dependent child, parent, or sibling of either spouse lives in the community spouse's household, federal law adds a family allowance. For each qualifying dependent, the allowance is at least one-third of the amount by which the MMMNA floor exceeds that family member's own monthly income, added on top of the community spouse's MMMNA.1

Requesting a higher allowance. If the MMMNA DFCS determines leaves the community spouse short, or if exceptional circumstances (medical expenses, court-ordered support) create unavoidable costs, the community spouse can request a fair hearing to raise the allowance. An elder-law attorney can help build that case.

Georgia's Income Cap and the Miller Trust

Georgia is an income-cap state for long-term-care Medicaid. The 2026 gross income limit, which Georgia calls the "Medicaid Cap," is $2,982 per month for the applicant, equal to 300% of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Federal Benefit Rate. An applicant whose gross income is at or above this cap cannot simply spend income down.3

Instead, Georgia requires the applicant to establish a Qualified Income Trust (QIT), commonly called a Miller Trust. Each month, income is deposited into the irrevocable trust, which must name DCH as remainder beneficiary up to the amount Medicaid spent on the applicant's care. Only then is that income excluded from the eligibility test. When the institutionalized spouse is over the cap, the CSMIA to the community spouse is paid out of the Miller Trust each month.5

The community spouse's own income does not count against the applicant's income cap. Once eligible, a nursing-facility resident keeps a Personal Needs Allowance of $70 per month in Georgia (the amount they keep for personal expenses), with the remainder of their income, after the CSMIA and other allowed deductions, applied to the cost of care. One exception: a VA pensioner or a VA pensioner's surviving spouse in a nursing home who has no dependents gets a $90 allowance instead, and the VA check is reduced to that amount regardless of other income.6

Whose Income Is Whose

For spousal impoverishment, income follows the "name on the check," even though assets are treated as jointly owned:

• Social Security or a pension paid to the community spouse is the community spouse's income.
• Social Security or a pension paid to the institutionalized spouse is the institutionalized spouse's income, and may flow to the community spouse as the CSMIA.
• Joint pension, annuity, or rental income is split evenly between the spouses.

This is the reverse of how assets work: assets are counted jointly on the snapshot date regardless of titling, while income belongs to whichever spouse's name is on the payment.

Home Equity and Estate Recovery

The primary home is generally exempt while the community spouse lives in it. Georgia applies the federal-minimum home-equity limit of $752,000 for 2026, but that cap does not apply at all while the applicant's spouse, the applicant's child under age 21, or the applicant's blind or permanently and totally disabled child of any age is lawfully residing in the home. In that situation the home is exempt as a resource without regard to how much equity it holds.2

After the institutionalized spouse passes away, Georgia estate recovery may seek reimbursement for the cost of care from the deceased recipient's estate. Federal law bars any recovery while a surviving spouse is alive, and bars it while the recipient has a surviving child who is under 21, blind, or permanently and totally disabled. Read that as a timing bar rather than a permanent exemption: it postpones recovery, it does not cancel it. And it does not mean everything that passed to the community spouse is beyond reach. Federal law lets a state define the recoverable estate to include not only probate assets but any property the recipient held legal title or an interest in at death, to the extent of that interest, including property conveyed to a survivor through joint tenancy, tenancy in common, right of survivorship, a life estate, or a living trust. How far Georgia's own definition of the recoverable estate reaches is covered in our Georgia Medicaid estate recovery guide, and it is worth reading before you assume jointly titled property passes to the survivor free of any later claim.2

The Look-Back Period

Federal law applies a 60-month (five-year) look-back to uncompensated asset transfers when determining long-term-care eligibility. Gifts or below-market transfers within five years of the application date can trigger a penalty period during which Medicaid will not pay for care.2 Georgia's DFCS manual implements the federal transfer exemptions, so no penalty applies to a transfer to the community spouse or to another person for the sole benefit of that spouse, and assets can be retitled into the community spouse's name without penalty. The snapshot-date valuation still counts all couple assets regardless of titling.2

How to Request a Fair Hearing

A community spouse can ask for a fair hearing to increase the CSRA (when the standard allowance cannot generate enough income to reach the MMMNA) or the MMMNA (for exceptional shelter or family expenses). File a written request with DFCS after the eligibility determination notice, and use the deadline printed on that notice, which is the one that governs your case. A separate 12-day rule applies to a different situation: if you are appealing a closure of benefits you already receive and you want those benefits to keep running while the hearing is pending, DFCS states that the request to continue them must be made within 12 days of receiving the closure notice, and that you may be required to repay those benefits if the hearing decision does not go your way. DFCS transmits the hearing request to the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings (OSAH), the separate tribunal that hears Medicaid applicants' and beneficiaries' appeals, and the hearing is held there.7,8

Include a copy of the determination notice, a statement of the basis for the request, and supporting documentation (income statements, shelter-cost records, dependency documentation). Free civil legal help is available for cases outside metro Atlanta.

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The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.