---
title: "Washington Medicaid Long-Term Care | Funding LTC Marketplace"
url: https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/washington/medicaid-long-term-care/
description: "How Apple Health, HCA, and DSHS divide long-term-care eligibility, assessment, and payment functions."
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.
---
Washington · Medicaid Program

# Washington Medicaid Long-Term Care

Last updated 2026-10-20

Washington's Medicaid program goes by the name Apple Health, and it can help cover long-term care once someone clears both a financial test and a functional assessment. The program's long-term-services menu includes Home and Community Services waivers, Developmental Disabilities Administration waivers, Community First Choice, and nursing-facility care.

No single office runs the whole show. The Health Care Authority owns Medicaid policy and the financial-eligibility side, while DSHS uses its CARE process to document how much help someone actually needs, confirm long-term-care eligibility, and build a care plan. Because the two functions sit in different agencies, a financial approval by itself doesn't guarantee services start — the functional assessment still has to happen, and vice versa: needing help doesn't automatically mean someone is financially eligible.

## Sources and official resources

- [Washington DSHS: Getting Started with Long-Term Care](https://www.dshs.wa.gov/adult-and-aging-services/getting-started-long-term-care)
- [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 Washington guide](https://fundingltcmarketplace.com/states/washington/)