Fact Sheet: Medi-Cal
Nursing Home Care Share of Cost

Persons who use Medi-Cal to help pay for nursing home care must often pay a portion of the cost. Generally, before Medi-Cal will pay a person's nursing home care costs for a particular month, the person must use substantially all of his or her available income for the nursing home and other health care costs. The portion that the Medi-Cal recipient must pay to the nursing home is called the Share of Cost.

For a married couple, if the at-home spouse's monthly income is less than $2,489, Medi-Cal's spousal protections allow some or all of the nursing home spouse's income to be transferred to the at-home spouse (rather than used for the nursing home spouse's Share of Cost) - to bring the at-home spouse's monthly income up to $2,489.

Medi-Cal will keep track of the amounts it pays for care, and will seek repayment for the accumulated amount after the recipient dies.

July 2006