2012 Wyoming Statutes
TITLE 42 - WELFARE
CHAPTER 7 - LONG-TERM CARE PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM
42-7-103. Wyoming long-term care partnership program established.

(a) In accordance with title VI, section 6021 of the federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, there shall be established the Wyoming long-term care partnership program, to be administered by the agency with the assistance of the department, to provide incentives for individuals to insure against the costs of providing for their long-term care needs by creating a mechanism for individuals to qualify for coverage of the cost of their long-term care needs under Medicaid without first being required to substantially exhaust their resources.

(b) The agency shall:

(i) Before January 1, 2010, or as soon thereafter as possible, make application to the federal department of health and human services for a state plan amendment to establish that, if an individual is a beneficiary of a long-term care partnership program certified policy, the total assets an individual owns and may retain under Medicaid and still qualify for benefits under Medicaid at the time the individual applies for long-term care benefits are increased by one dollar ($1.00) for each one dollar ($1.00) of benefit paid out under the individual's long-term care partnership program certified insurance policy;

(ii) Provide information and technical assistance to the department on the department's role in assuring that any individual who sells a qualified long-term care insurance partnership policy receives training and demonstrates evidence of an understanding of such policies and how they relate to other public and private coverage of long-term care.

(c) The department may not impose any requirement affecting the terms of benefits of a policy under the partnership program unless the department imposes such requirement on long-term care insurance policies without regard to whether the policy is covered under the partnership or is offered in connection with such a partnership.

(d) The issuers of qualified long-term care partnership policies in Wyoming shall provide regular reports to the secretary of the federal department of health and human services, in accordance with federal regulations.

(e) Reciprocity between the program and other state programs shall be subject to the following:

(i) Any individual who has purchased a partnership policy in any participating state, who has received benefits under the policy and who applies for Medicaid in a participating state other than the one in which the policy was issued shall receive an asset disregard in an equal dollar amount to the benefits received under the policy;

(ii) The asset disregard procedure and calculation shall be the same for every individual with a partnership policy who applies for Medicaid in the participating state, without regard to whether the policy was purchased in another state or the date the policy was purchased;

(iii) An amount equal to the benefits received under the partnership policy shall be exempt from Medicaid estate recovery provisions; and

(iv) If a person moves from the state in which the person's partnership policy was issued, later applies for Medicaid in another participating state and is determined to be eligible using a partnership asset disregard, the partnership asset disregard shall not be revoked upon eligibility redetermination should the state subsequently decide to become exempt from the reciprocity agreement.