Nevada Medicaid Income Limits 2026: Eligibility & Assets

Nevada Medicaid income limits set a hard monthly ceiling for long-term-care coverage, and going over it doesn't trigger a spend-down the way it does in many states. Instead you're shut out, unless you set up a particular kind of trust. For 2026, a single applicant for nursing-home or waiver coverage must have gross income at or below $2,982 a month and no more than $2,000 in countable assets.

This guide walks through the 2026 income and asset rules for Nevada Medicaid for aged, blind, and disabled residents who need long-term care. It covers which income test applies to a senior, the asset limit, the income cap and the Miller Trust that gets over-income applicants in, what a nursing-home resident keeps, what a spouse at home is protected from, the five-year look-back, and how to apply through Access Nevada.1

In This Guide

• Which income limits apply to a senior
• Who runs Nevada Medicaid
• The asset limit
• The income cap and the Miller Trust
• What a nursing-home resident keeps
• Protecting the spouse at home
• After death: estate recovery
• How to apply in Nevada
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

Which Nevada Medicaid income limits apply to a senior

Before the numbers, a clarification that trips up a lot of families: the income figure that applies to a senior in long-term care is not the one most online calculators show.

Nevada expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, so working-age adults can qualify through the Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) pathway at up to 138% of the Federal Poverty Level (about $1,835 a month for one person in 2026, derived from the $15,960 annual guideline).5 That MAGI number is what a calculator surfaces, and it has an important feature: no asset test.

A senior applying for nursing-home or waiver coverage is on a different track. Their test runs through Nevada's Medical Assistance to the Aged, Blind and Disabled (MAABD) category, which uses the 300% SSI income cap below and a hard $2,000 asset limit.1,2 So if you've landed on a "$1,835 / 138% FPL" figure while researching coverage for a parent who needs a nursing home, that is the wrong number for their situation. The rest of this guide is about the ABD/long-term-care test that actually governs.

Who runs Nevada Medicaid, and who decides eligibility

Two agencies share the work. The Nevada Health Authority (NVHA), established in the 2025 legislative session by Senate Bill 494, offers Medicaid through its Nevada Medicaid division, which administers the state's program. Financial eligibility is determined by the Division of Social Services (DSS), including for MAABD, the category that covers long-term care for aged, blind, and disabled residents.1 When this guide refers to the income cap or the asset test, those are DSS determinations. If a letter you're holding or a third-party page names some other Nevada agency, work from the two state sites linked above, which are the current ones.

The $2,000 asset limit

Nevada holds to the long-standing federal figure: a single aged or disabled applicant for long-term-care Medicaid may keep $2,000 in countable assets, and a married couple with both spouses applying may keep $3,000.1 Unlike a handful of states that have raised this ceiling, Nevada has not.

What matters is which assets actually count. Nevada's Medical Assistance Manual excludes one vehicle without regard to its use or value, and your home is not counted unless its equity exceeds the long-term-care equity limit discussed next. So the $2,000 applies to things like bank accounts, a second car, and investments, not the roof over your head.1 Be careful with the longer exemption lists you'll find quoted online: household goods, personal effects, and prepaid burial arrangements are commonly excluded elsewhere, but they are not on the exemption list Nevada's own institutional manual prints, so ask DSS how a specific asset is treated in your case rather than assuming it's safe.

On the home specifically, federal law disqualifies a long-term-care applicant whose home equity exceeds a set ceiling. For 2026 that ceiling is a federal minimum of $752,000 unless the state elects a higher amount, up to a maximum of $1,130,000, and both figures are indexed annually.6

Nevada's operative number needs confirming before you rely on it. Nevada's own Medical Assistance Manual (F-100) states that individuals with home equity above $713,000 are ineligible for long-term-care services. That is below the $752,000 federal minimum CMS set for 2026, and the same manual still prints an institutional income limit of $2,313 against this year's $2,982 cap, so some of its dollar figures have not been rolled forward. We won't pick one of those numbers for you: if your home equity is anywhere near either figure, ask DSS in writing which limit it is applying to your application.1

The federal indexing is also scheduled to stop: a 2025 federal law (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Public Law 119-21) will cap the limit at a flat $1,000,000 effective January 1, 2028 for any home that is not on a lot zoned for agricultural use, so the state-elected maximum will fall rather than keep rising.6

The single-applicant limit is also why married couples need to read the spousal-impoverishment section below before assuming the $2,000 figure applies to them. When only one spouse needs care, a much larger asset allowance protects the spouse who stays home.1

Nevada Medicaid income limits: the cap and the Miller Trust

Here is where Nevada parts ways with states like Illinois or California. For nursing-facility and home and community-based waiver coverage, Nevada sets a gross income limit of $2,982 a month for a single applicant. That figure is 300% of the 2026 SSI Federal Benefit Rate of $994.1,2

Nevada is an income-cap state. The limit is a cliff, not a sliding scale. An applicant whose gross monthly income is even a few dollars over $2,982 falls outside this category, and none of the seven MAABD eligibility categories Nevada publishes is a medically needy spend-down category that would let you incur medical bills down to the line.1 A senior whose retirement and pension income adds up to more than the cap is over it, even though that income is nowhere near enough to private-pay a nursing home that can cost three or four times as much.

The route in is a Qualified Income Trust, almost always called a Miller Trust. Federal law, at 42 U.S.C. 1396p(d)(4)(B), carves out exactly this situation: a trust "composed only of pension, Social Security, and other income to the individual," in a state that covers the 300%-cap group but not medically needy nursing-facility care. Income that flows through the trust doesn't count against the $2,982 cap, and the statute conditions the carve-out on the state receiving whatever remains in the trust at death, up to the total Medicaid paid on the person's behalf.1

One honest caveat: Nevada's own procedure for establishing and administering a Qualified Income Trust is not spelled out in the DSS materials we can source, so don't assume another state's mechanics apply here.1 The trust has to be drafted correctly to be honored, and the income has to actually pass through it every month. This is not a do-it-yourself document. If your income is over the cap, ask DSS what it requires and talk to an elder-law attorney before applying. For the broader picture, see our guide to Medicaid planning strategies.

Long-term care: what a nursing-home resident keeps

When Nevada Medicaid pays for nursing-facility care, the resident contributes almost all of their monthly income toward the cost of care. What they keep is the Personal Needs Allowance (PNA), money reserved for the resident's own small expenses like clothing, a haircut, or a phone. Nevada sets its PNA at $154 a month, above the federal floor of $30 that 42 CFR 435.725 sets as the minimum.1,3

That $154 is worth knowing about, because it directly affects how much spending money a parent in a Nevada facility actually has each month.1 (For the national picture on the PNA and how it's calculated, see our explainer on the Medicaid personal needs allowance.)

The same $2,000 asset limit applies to nursing-home applicants. And because Nevada uses an income cap rather than a spend-down, a resident with income over $2,982 doesn't simply pay more toward care to qualify; they need the Qualified Income Trust described above.1

The five-year look-back

Nevada reviews asset transfers made in the 60 months before a long-term-care application.1,6 Giving away money or property for less than fair market value during that window, signing a house over to a child for a dollar, or gifting a grandchild a down payment can trigger a penalty period during which Medicaid won't pay for long-term-care services, even though you're otherwise eligible.

There are legitimate exceptions (transfers between spouses, transfers to a disabled child, certain caregiver-child home transfers) and legitimate planning approaches, but anything done inside the five-year window deserves an elder-law attorney's review first. If long-term care is on the horizon for someone in your family, talk to a professional before moving assets.

Protecting the spouse who stays home

When one spouse needs long-term care and the other remains in the community, federal spousal-impoverishment rules keep the at-home spouse from being left destitute. Nevada applies the federal figures for 2026:1,4

So a married couple is in a very different position from a single applicant. Because Nevada allows the maximum federal standard rather than half the couple's assets, the community spouse can hold $162,660 in countable assets and keep several thousand dollars a month in income while the other spouse receives Medicaid-funded care.1,4 For the full mechanics, see our Nevada spousal impoverishment guide.

After death: estate recovery

Like every state, Nevada runs a Medicaid estate-recovery program. After a recipient who was 55 or older when they received Medicaid-paid nursing-facility, home and community-based, or related hospital and prescription-drug services dies, federal law requires the state to seek adjustment or recovery from their estate. Two well-known protections are timing bars, not permanent exemptions: recovery may be made only after the death of a surviving spouse, and only at a time when there is no surviving child who is under age 21 or who is blind or permanently and totally disabled. A surviving spouse postpones recovery; it does not cancel it, and the child protection is keyed to age 21, not to turning 18. Every state must also make an undue-hardship waiver available.1,6 For how estate recovery works and where families have room to plan, see our Medicaid estate recovery explainer.

How to apply in Nevada

Financial eligibility is handled by the Division of Social Services (DSS). Rather than pointing every applicant at one form, DSS routes you through a pre-screening tool in Access Nevada, reached by the "Do I Qualify for Medical Assistance?" button, which gathers basic information and recommends which website is the right place to submit your application. You can also complete the paper application for aged, blind, or disabled coverage and mail it to the address printed on the form.1 Our step-by-step guide to applying for Nevada Medicaid walks through each channel, the documents you'll need, and how long a decision takes.

One eligibility-specific tip: if your income is over the $2,982 cap, set up the Qualified Income Trust before or alongside your application rather than after a denial, so coverage isn't delayed. And if you're married, don't assume the $2,000 asset figure applies to you; the spousal-impoverishment rules above often protect far more.1

Learn More

Find personalized help working through Nevada Medicaid eligibility and the income-cap rules for your family at brevy.com.

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.