---
title: "Kentucky Long-Term Care Planning | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/kentucky/long-term-care-planning/
description: "Kentucky planning needs to coordinate the income-cap/QIT rules, five-year transfer review, expanded estate recovery, and HCB waiver capacity."
last_updated: 2026-10-20
author: George A. Mellendorf, CLTC, LTCP (Central States Insurance Services, Inc.)
publisher: Funding LTC Marketplace
note: Educational content; not legal, tax or financial advice. Markdown copy of the HTML page at the URL above.
---
Kentucky · Planning Ahead

# Kentucky Long-Term Care Planning

Last updated 2026-10-20

Kentucky planning has to start from the hard income cap. CHFS sets the 2026 special income standard at $2,982 a month — described as three times the SSI income limit — and applies it to anyone admitted to long-term care. Someone slightly over that number shouldn't assume ordinary medical spending will resolve the issue the way a spend-down might elsewhere.

For income above the standard, Kentucky allows a Qualifying Income Trust, or Miller trust. To work, the QIT has to be established in Kentucky, made irrevocable, funded only with the individual's own income and any accumulated interest, held in a separate account, and structured to repay the state from any remaining balance at death, up to the amount of Medicaid assistance paid.

Layer that income-cap rule together with the 60-month transfer look-back, Kentucky's expanded estate-recovery definition, and the HCB waiver's waitlist, and it's clear why a Kentucky plan needs to coordinate several moving pieces rather than optimizing for just one of them.

## Kentucky figures

- 2026 special income standard: $2,982/month
- Transfer look-back period: 60 months (transfers after February 8, 2006)

## Sources and official resources

- [Kentucky Medicaid: Nursing Facility Services](https://www.chfs.ky.gov/agencies/dms/provider/Pages/nursingfacilities.aspx)
- [CMS: 2026 SSI and Spousal Impoverishment Standards](https://www.medicaid.gov/federal-policy-guidance/downloads/cib04272026.pdf)

Rules and figures change. Confirm current details with the agency before you act.

[← Back to the full Kentucky guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/kentucky/)