How to Apply for Medicaid in Texas: 2026 Step-by-Step Guide

You can apply for Medicaid in Texas online, by mail or fax, or in person. The harder part for a senior isn't the form, it's the path: if your countable income is over the long-term-care cap, you'll usually need a trust in place before you apply, not after a denial. This guide walks through every method, the documents you'll need, and the senior-specific traps that sink many applications.

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• How to Apply for Medicaid in Texas
• How to Apply as a Senior: The Long-Term-Care Path
• What Documents You'll Need
• Can Someone Else Apply for You?
• How Long Does the Application Take?
• Why the Date You Apply Matters
• Why Applications Get Denied
• What If You're Denied?
• Where to Get Free Help
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Learn More

How to Apply for Medicaid in Texas

Texas gives you four ways to submit a Medicaid application. Pick whichever fits your situation.

Online at YourTexasBenefits.com

Go to YourTexasBenefits.com, the state's official benefits portal, and apply there instead of on paper. Applying online is also what unlocks online tracking: after you submit, you can check the status of your application, your interview time, and the items the state still needs from you.1 The site handles Medicaid for the Elderly and People with Disabilities (MEPD), the program for aged and disabled applicants.5

In Person

Take your completed application to any HHSC benefits office. To find the nearest one, use the office finder on YourTexasBenefits.com or call 2-1-1.1

By Mail or Fax

The paper application for seniors is Form H1200, which HHSC uses for all MEPD programs.5 You can download it from the HHSC website or call 2-1-1 to ask for a copy. Check the first page before you fill it out: it points some people to a shorter version, such as Form H1200-EZ for the Medicare Savings Programs.1 You sign it under penalty of perjury.5 Then mail it to HHSC's processing center in Midland or to your local benefits office, or fax it. The copy of the form available online is an older edition, so call 2-1-1 to confirm the current mailing address and fax number before you send it.1

Getting Help by Phone

Calling 2-1-1 (or 877-541-7905) is the way to get help, but it isn't a way to file. After you pick a language, press 2 to ask questions about the form, find where to get help filling it out, check its status, or ask about benefit programs. If you're deaf, hard of hearing, or speech-impaired, call 7-1-1 or 1-800-735-2989.1

How to Apply for Medicaid in Texas as a Senior: The Long-Term-Care Path

For a senior who needs Medicaid to pay for long-term care, the four channels above aren't the whole story.

Two things make the senior, long-term-care path different from the standard online application:

You may need a Qualified Income Trust before you apply. Texas is an income-cap state for long-term-care Medicaid. A single applicant's countable income has to be at or below $2,982 per month in 2026 (that figure is 300% of the federal Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefit rate).2 Before you assume you're over, check what actually counts: HHSC's first step is working out which income is countable, and some money isn't. Certain Veterans Affairs benefits don't count toward Medicaid eligibility, and where a Qualified Domestic Relations Order split retirement income, HHSC follows a name-on-the-check rule.2 If countable income does land above the cap, a Qualified Income Trust (QIT), also called a Miller Trust, can overcome the limit: income diverted into the trust is no longer counted for institutional or waiver eligibility.2 A QIT settles the income test and nothing else, though: it doesn't help with citizenship, residency, medical necessity, or your countable resources.2 Timing matters too. Income has to go into the trust in the same month you receive it; in any month it doesn't, that income counts, and if it puts you over the limit you're ineligible for that month.6 So it's worth setting up early, with an elder law attorney's help, rather than after a denial.

You have to clear a level-of-care assessment. Nursing facility (institutional) Medicaid requires a nursing-facility medical level-of-care determination on top of the financial rules.2 Waiver services delivered in the community, such as STAR+PLUS Home and Community Based Services, carry an institutional level-of-care requirement of their own.7 It's a real gate: HHSC has to determine that you need services to the same extent you would if you lived in a nursing facility or other institution.7 One more difference worth knowing about waivers: unlike regular Medicaid, Texas may cap how many people a waiver serves and keep an interest list when demand runs past that capacity.7 You don't have to prove you qualify before signing up, because HHSC doesn't decide waiver eligibility until a slot opens and you reach the top of the list, so get your name on it early. And the list isn't the only door into STAR+PLUS Home and Community Based Services: someone already on Medicaid with a health plan may be able to skip it through the upgrade process, and someone living in a nursing facility may qualify through Money Follows the Person.7

If you're applying for regular community Medicaid rather than long-term care, neither of these applies, and the standard application is all you need.

What Documents You'll Need

Gather these before you start.

Identity and citizenship:

• Social Security card or statement
• A U.S. passport, Certificate of Naturalization, or Certificate of U.S. Citizenship, any one of which proves both citizenship and identity
• Without one of those, two documents: one for citizenship (such as a birth certificate) and a separate one for identity (such as a Texas driver's license or state ID), since a Texas driver's license on its own doesn't prove citizenship8
• If you're enrolled in Medicare (Part A or Part B), you don't have to prove citizenship separately8

Income:

• Social Security award letter or SSA-1099
• Pension and retirement income statements
• Recent pay stubs, if you're still working

Financial accounts:

• Bank statements for all checking and savings accounts for the month you apply and the three months before it (HHSC checks electronic records first and may not need them)9
• Statements for retirement accounts, CDs, stocks, bonds, and any trusts

For nursing-home or waiver Medicaid, be ready to provide more financial history. Texas applies a 5-year (60-month) look-back to asset transfers.10 If the state spots a possible transfer, it can ask for up to 60 months of bank statements to see how far back the transfers go.9 That's the main reason the long-term-care document load can be heavier than people expect.

Property and insurance:

• Property deeds and recent tax bills
• Life insurance policies (face value and cash surrender value)
• Health insurance cards and your Medicare ID
• Vehicle registration or title
• Burial plot deeds and prepaid funeral contracts

Medical expenses (for deductions):

• Recent medical bills
• Pharmacy statements and insurance premium receipts

Can Someone Else Apply for You?

Yes. If you're helping a parent or another family member, there are a few paths, and which one you use depends on whether the applicant can still sign for themselves.

A family member or close friend who knows the applicant's finances can sign the application without extra paperwork; anyone else signing for the applicant needs Form H1003 signed by the applicant, or proof of their authority.5 If the applicant can sign, that's the simplest route.

If the applicant wants a formal stand-in, they can name an authorized representative on Form H1003, which both of them sign; the representative must be 18 or older. An authorized representative can sign the application, give and get information for it, receive copies of notices, and act for the applicant with HHSC, including appealing a decision.11

If the applicant can't sign because of incapacity, such as advanced dementia, someone acting responsibly for them may sign, and if the applicant has a legal guardian, the guardian must sign.5 HHSC also accepts legal documentation of a guardianship or power of attorney to designate a representative.11 This is the path families hit most often when a parent is no longer able to manage the process themselves.

How Long Does the Application Take?

Federal Medicaid rules cap how long the state can take. Under 42 CFR 435.912, the state has no more than 45 days to decide most applications, and no more than 90 days for applicants who apply for Medicaid on the basis of disability.4 Those are maximums for the agency, measured from the date you apply, not a promise your answer will come that fast.

The limit turns on the basis you applied under. If you're applying as a senior on the basis of age, yours is the 45-day standard, even when the file involves medical records or a level-of-care review. The regulation excuses the standard only in unusual circumstances, and the ones it gives are examples rather than a complete list: you or an examining physician delaying or failing to take a required action, an administrative or other emergency beyond the agency's control, or the 30 calendar days a person sent a community-engagement notice of noncompliance has to respond.4 The 45 and 90 days are outer limits; Texas sets its own timeliness standards in its State plan and has to tell applicants what they are.4

If your case does run long, two parts of the same rule protect you. The state has to write down the reasons for the delay in your case record, and it can't use the time limit as a waiting period or deny you because it ran out of time.4 So if your case is sitting past its deadline, say so when you call, and ask what the hold-up is.

The fastest thing you can do to keep it moving is respond quickly when the state asks for more documents. If you applied online, check YourTexasBenefits.com regularly: it shows the items the state still needs from you and whether it got what you sent.1 Missing a verification deadline can stall or sink an application. If you applied on paper, or haven't heard anything as the deadline approaches, call 2-1-1, press 2 after choosing a language, and ask for a status update.1

Why the Date You Apply Matters

The day you apply isn't just paperwork timing. It anchors a window of retroactive coverage. Under federal law, once you're approved, Medicaid has to cover eligible care you received as far back as the third month before the month you applied, as long as you would have qualified back then. The exact start date inside that window is set by each state's Medicaid plan, so don't assume coverage reaches the first day of that third month.12 For a family staring at nursing-home bills that have already piled up, that back-coverage can matter more than the going-forward benefit.

One important change is coming: for applications filed on or after January 1, 2027, a federal law (Public Law 119-21) shortens that retroactive window to two months for most enrollees and one month for the Medicaid expansion adult group.12 Through the end of 2026, three months is the federal default, but a state can run a shorter window under an approved federal demonstration waiver, so confirm the window that applies to you with HHSC.12 If care has already been provided and you're eligible, applying sooner rather than later protects more of the back-coverage.

Why Applications Get Denied

Most denials fall into two buckets: procedural and financial.

Procedural denials. These happen when the documents the state requested don't arrive by the deadline. They're common and almost entirely avoidable. When the state sends a request for information, respond right away rather than setting it aside.

Income over the cap. For nursing-home and waiver Medicaid, the income cap is $2,982 per month of countable income for a single applicant in 2026.2 If countable income exceeds the cap, a Qualified Income Trust (Miller Trust) can divert income so it no longer counts against the limit, though the trust settles only the income test.2 It's fixable if you handle it before applying.

Assets over the limit. The countable asset limit is $2,000 for a single applicant. The $3,000 couple limit applies to married adults living in the same household, so once one spouse moves into a nursing facility, Texas tests that spouse at the individual $2,000 limit under its spousal-impoverishment policy.3 Your primary home, one vehicle regardless of value, household goods, and personal effects aren't counted as resources at all.3 Home equity is a separate rule and not a resource test: if your equity interest in the home is above $752,000 in 2026, you aren't eligible for Medicaid to pay for care in an institutional setting and you'll be denied waiver services, even though the home itself still isn't counted. That rule doesn't apply at all if your spouse, or your child who is under 21, blind, or permanently and totally disabled, lawfully lives in the home.13 What you lose depends on the setting: a nursing-facility resident keeps their other Medicaid benefits and loses only the payment for the facility care, while someone who needs a waiver can lose Medicaid benefits altogether. The limit isn't a dead end, either. You can bring your equity down with a reverse mortgage or home equity loan, and federal rules provide a hardship waiver process.13 Common trip-ups are savings above the limit, accessible retirement accounts, and life insurance with cash value.

Asset-transfer penalties. Texas looks back 60 months for gifts or below-market sales.10 If you made an uncompensated transfer during that window, the state divides the total uncompensated value by a daily penalty divisor of $262.37 (for case actions disposed on or after September 1, 2025) and rounds partial amounts down to whole days.10 A hypothetical $50,000 gift divided by that $262.37 divisor works out to 190 days of ineligibility.10 Not every transfer of the home is penalized. Federal law exempts a transfer to your spouse; to a child who is under 21, blind, or permanently and totally disabled; to a sibling who has an equity interest in the home and lived there for at least one year right before you entered a facility; or to a son or daughter who lived there for at least two years right before you entered a facility and, as determined by the state, provided care that let you stay home instead.10 That last one isn't automatic. HHSC decides whether the caregiving qualified, so a family relying on it should expect to prove the care, not just the two years in the home.10

What If You're Denied?

You have time to fight a denial, and you should if you think it's wrong. Federal rules cap the window a state may give you to request a fair hearing at 90 days from the date the notice is mailed; that's a ceiling, and a state may set a shorter one as long as it's reasonable.14 Texas sets its general window at that ceiling: you can appeal within 90 calendar days from the effective date of the action or the date of the notice, whichever is later. For an appeal about a managed care plan's decision, you have 120 days from the plan's final determination.15 Still read your own notice for the date that governs your case, and request the hearing inside it. If you've already missed it, file anyway: HHSC staff can't refuse a late appeal, and the hearings officer decides whether you had good cause for the delay.15 Most appeal requests can be made in writing, by calling 2-1-1, or at a local HHSC office.16

Hearings are usually held by conference call, and the hearings officer has 60 to 90 days from your request to issue a written decision. If you disagree with it, the decision explains how to ask for an administrative review by an HHSC administrative law judge, and after that you can ask the district court in Travis County for judicial review within 30 days.16

Before you go it alone, call your local Area Agency on Aging. AAAs help people 60 and older and their caregivers with benefits, and they can help you sort out whether the denial was procedural (a missing document you can still provide) or substantive.17 If you want a lawyer's help, ask your AAA or 2-1-1 for a referral to legal aid in your region. And remember the retroactive-coverage window above: winning an appeal can restore coverage for care you already received.

Where to Get Free Help

You don't have to figure this out alone. Several options help Texas seniors with Medicaid at no cost. The phone lines below are staffed by Texas Health and Human Services and its partners.18

Next Steps

Gather your documents first, and if your income is over the long-term-care cap, talk to an elder law attorney about a Qualified Income Trust before you apply. Both steps save time and head off two common reasons applications fail. When you're ready, start here.

Learn More

Find personalized help applying for Texas Medicaid 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.