All Medicaid Programs |
Obsolete Policy |
Effective Date: January 1, 2014 - October 31, 2021
Contact DOH Policy Specialist for Previous Policy
For non-MAGI-based programs, countable income is gross income minus exempt income, allowable disregards, deductions, and earned income expenses, if applicable. The various programs allow different exemptions, disregards, deductions and expenses. This means "countable income" to decide eligibility for one program can be different than the "countable income" used to decide eligibility for another program.
Sometimes, a client may incur expenses in an attempt to make certain types of income available. For example, a client may have legal fees to try to receive insurance payments. Deduct expenses the client must pay to make the income available before determining the gross income received by the client. Such expenses may include court costs, lawyers' fees, liens, etc., that are taken out before the client receives the income.
Do not deduct taxes, court-ordered support payments, garnishments for debts, insurance premiums, employee contributions to retirement funds, medical savings accounts, or flexible accounts for medical or child care expenses, etc., taken out of income before a client receives the income. Do not deduct expenses such as checking account fees from income being directly deposited to an account. Do not deduct expenses such as transportation costs to get to work, FICA tax or other payroll deductions.
(See 431-1 for health insurance deductions and 409-2 for impairment-related work expense deductions for the disabled. See 403-3 and 405-1 for deferred income.)
See 450 for income for MAGI programs.