Rhode Island Long-Term Care Information

The State of Rhode Island, like most states, participates in the federal/state long-term care partnership program in order to help families protect assets from the high costs of long-term health care. This “dollar-for-dollar asset protection” provides additional benefit for qualified LTC insurance plans. The state established the Rhode Island Qualified Long-Term Care Insurance Partnership (QLTCIP) program to provide for the disregard of a Medicaid applicant's resources in an amount equal to the benefits paid by their QLTCIP policy in the event they exhaust their policy benefits. The total amount paid by the individual's QLTCIP policy at the time of death is also disregarded in the determination of the amount to be recovered from a beneficiary's estate.

The amount that will be protected during estate recovery is the same amount that was disregarded in the eligibility determination. There may be continuing QLTCIP policy payments after Medicaid eligibility is established, so if the person later gains assets, he/she may have more protected than at the time of eligibility. Thus, the total amount paid by the individual's QLTCIP at the time of death is to be disregarded in the determination of the amount to be recovered from a beneficiary's estate.

Long-Term Care Medicaid spend down is $4000. A spouse’s minimum asset allowance is $24,720.

Most states have reciprocity with other states' long-term care partnership programs including Rhode Island. This means if you move from or to Rhode Island your partnership asset protection follows you as well.

Rhode Island does not offer any state tax incentive for qualified long-term care insurance, however, federal tax incentives are still available.

A variety of products are approved in Rhode Island for Long-Term Care planning.