Financial eligibility is not the whole decision
The published 2026 long-term-care figures most often used for a single applicant are $2,500 in countable resources and $2,982 per month of income for nursing-facility Medicaid and CFI. The application also has to establish the required care level; eligibility is not created by meeting a dollar test alone (2026 New Hampshire program guide; CFI eligibility guide).
New Hampshire’s rules recognize distinct treatment for people applying for home and community-based care when resources are evaluated, while still applying transfer rules in the long-term-care context. That is one reason a nursing-facility result should not simply be assumed to carry over to a community application (He-W 800 rules).
Who handles what
DHHS administers Medicaid and conducts the state process. A nursing facility, hospital discharge planner, area agency, case manager, or CFI provider may help assemble records, but those parties do not replace the DHHS financial and medical determinations (NH DHHS Medicaid; NH DHHS nursing-home information).
For planning, preserve bank records, deeds, trust documents, annuity information, income notices, and care assessments. The state’s long-term-services checklist calls for evidence of resources and a 60-month record review where long-term-care transfer rules apply (NH Care Collaborative LTSS checklist).
Practical point: In New Hampshire, a long-term-care Medicaid case commonly has three moving parts: a financial test, a medical/functional determination, and the care setting or waiver pathway. Treat all three as application issues, not just the income figure.
For a married household, the community spouse’s income and resources also require a separate analysis. The state rules recognize federal spousal-impoverishment protections rather than treating every account as automatically available to the applicant (He-W 856 resource rules).
CFI’s CMS approval record and the DHHS long-term-care pages identify the public program framework, while individual service authorization and eligibility are still case-specific determinations. Keep every notice and request for information in the application file (CMS CFI waiver record).
Not mutually exclusive. Most families combine two or three funding pillars — this one rarely stands alone.
The
Journey Assessment ranks all ten pillars against your specific situation and
recommends the top three.
