The income-cap rule has to be the starting point for any Oregon plan. The 2026 long-term-care countable-income standard is $2,982 a month, equal to 300% of the full SSI standard, and Oregon's rule offers a qualifying-trust route for anyone who doesn't meet that 300%-of-SSI threshold — which is exactly why a properly built Income Cap Trust is often the central planning tool here.
ODHS training materials explain that a person whose countable income exceeds the cap isn't eligible unless an Income Cap Trust has been established, with one notable exception: a veteran who's over the cap solely because of VA Aid and Attendance income may qualify for different treatment. Some older ODHS training slides still show an outdated cap figure, so it's worth confirming the current $2,982 standard, along with the veteran exception, directly with ODHS before acting.
From there, planning has to account for the 60-month transfer look-back, the state's statutory TOD deed, and its expanded estate-recovery definition together — treating any one of those in isolation risks missing how the others interact with it.