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Unemployment Benefits and Stimulus Checks May Affect Medicaid Eligibility

Unemployment Benefits and Stimulus Checks May Affect Medicaid Eligibility

Published March 12, 2021

From the Louisiana Department of Health – Medicaid members who received stimulus checks or unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 public health emergency may need to tell Medicaid about it.

What counts as income for Medicaid?

Medicaid members have to report all income to Medicaid at application or renewal. Actively enrolled members must also report any changes in their income. Some unemployment benefits need to be reported as income.

Regular unemployment insurance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), and Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation (MEUC) are counted as income. These must be reported to Medicaid as income. You can report any of these benefits online at MyMedicaid.la.gov or by calling 1-888-342-6207.

Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC), Lost Wages Assistance (LWA), Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA), and stimulus checks are not counted as income and do not need to be reported to Medicaid as income.

What counts as a resource for Medicaid?

Members in some Medicaid programs have to report resources as well as income. If you have to report resources, you may need to report unemployment benefits and stimulus checks after a certain amount of time.

Any regular unemployment insurance (UI), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation (MEUC), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), or Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) remaining after the month you received the benefits will be counted as a resource.

All stimulus checks remaining after 12 months will be counted as a resource.

The benefits listed above that are counted as resources must be reported to Medicaid. You can report any of these benefits online at MyMedicaid.la.gov or by calling 1-888-342-6207.

Lost Wages Assistance (LWA) and Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA) will not be counted as a resource at any time and does not need to be reported to Medicaid as a resource. 

Questions?

If you have questions about how these benefits may affect your Medicaid eligibility, contact us at 1-888-342-6207.