Bill > S567

This bill establishes criteria for Masshealth hardship waivers, which are exceptions to ineligibility periods for nursing facility residents seeking to eliminate those periods. Masshealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid program, will develop procedures to determine if a resident faces "undue hardship," meaning they would be at risk of serious deprivation or harm due to insufficient resources for necessities like medical care, food, shelter, and clothing, after attempting to retrieve transferred resources or receiving compensation, and when no less costly alternative to institutional care exists. The bill creates a rebuttable presumption that a waiver should be granted if these conditions are met, and a nursing facility does not need to intend to discharge a resident for nonpayment for a waiver to be considered.