Virginia Long-Term Care Planning

Getting the income route right is where Virginia planning starts. The 2026 manual lists $2,982 a month as the 300%-of-SSI figure for the institutional and waiver eligibility group, but Virginia also runs medically needy income standards and a spend-down process. The long-term-care manual even spells out certain HCBS, PACE, and hospice cases where a transfer penalty can't be imposed until the person has met a spend-down, qualified in another full-benefit group, or entered a nursing facility — which is exactly why a family shouldn't assume a Qualified Income Trust is the automatic fix for income over $2,982 (DMAS 2026 income charts; DMAS Chapter M14).

Resources follow their own separate set of rules. Virginia currently uses $2,000 for a single applicant and $3,000 for the basic two-person aged-blind-disabled standard, while a community spouse can be protected with a resource amount somewhere between a $32,532 floor and a $162,660 maximum for 2026. The home-equity limit sits at $752,000, subject to the policy's exceptions for a spouse or child still living in the home. Getting the resource assessment done before moving money or changing title is the practical takeaway here (DMAS 2026 resource policy; DMAS Chapter M14).