Maine Medicaid Long-Term Care

Maine's version of Medicaid goes by the name MaineCare, and the Department of Health and Human Services describes it simply as the federal Medicaid program as it operates in Maine. The Office for Family Independence handles eligibility questions and applications, while the state's published Eligibility Manual lays out the specific requirements for long-term care: an institutionalized person has to meet a coverable Medicaid group, a medical-need classification, asset criteria, and income criteria, after which the person's cost of care gets calculated.

One detail worth knowing precisely: Maine's manual treats someone as "institutionalized" once their hospital or nursing-facility stay is expected to last 30 consecutive days. The special institutional rules then kick in starting on the first day of the month in which that 30-day period begins — not only after the full 30 days have actually elapsed.