Medicaid

funded health care program that serves a wide range of needy individuals and families who meet certain eligibility requirements. The program works to ensure that eligible adults and children have access to needed health care services by enrolling and paying providers to deliver covered services to eligible recipients.

Medicaid provides payment for health care services ranging from routine preventive medical care for children to institutional care for the elderly and disabled. Covered services can include hospital, physician, nursing facility, home health, lab, x-ray, family planning, rural health clinics, prescription drugs, physical-occupational-speech therapy, adult medical day care, medical transportation, medical supplies, durable medical equipment, dental, chiropractor, psychotherapy, podiatry, interpreter, advanced registered nurse practitioners, certified midwife, private duty nursing, EPSDT (early, periodic, screening and diagnostic testing), newborn home visits, extended services to pregnant women, personal care attendant, vision care, audiology, nursing facility, home and community based care for the elderly. The program also covers services for developmentally disabled individuals and persons with acquired brain disorders, as well as services at community mental health centers.

There are three sets of requirements – general, financial and medical that are evaluated to make an eligibility determination for Medicaid. While there are requirements that are generally the same for each set of services, there are some differences – for example, an application for services under the Aid to the Needy Blind program requires an individual to have a medical necessity determination of legally blind, while an application for services from Healthy Kids has no medical necessity requirement. Specific details regarding all eligibility requirements are explained for each service.

General Requirements

All or most of the general requirements below must be met to be eligible for Medicaid services. When an item below is not required for a program, a DHHS District Office worker will inform you at the time of application.

• Citizenship Status/Immigration: You must be either a US citizen or an eligible qualified alien. There are limited emergency medical services available for some non-qualified aliens. Contact a DHHS District Office for more information;
• Residency: You must be a current resident of NH but do not need to live here for a specified length of time;
• Age: You must meet any program age requirements; and
• Social Security Number: For most Medicaid programs the law requires that each individual requesting assistance furnish a social security number or verify that an application for a social security number was filed (if one has never been issued or you cannot provide the number).

Financial requirements are broken into two components: income and resources. Although every program examines income to determine eligibility, not every program counts resources. If a program counts resources, you must meet the program’s resource requirements as well as the income requirements to be eligible for the program.