Nearly every nursing home resident is the country is expecting to receive a stimulus payment in the amount of $1,200 very soon.  When this was first announced this raised questions about whether it would be counted as income and, therefore, result in a temporary increase in the patient share of cost, and whether it would create a countable resource, which for some individuals could cause disqualification.

The answer is it will NOT be treated as income but rather as a tax refund which is exempt (not countable as a resource) for 12 months.  For recipients whose countable resources are already below $800, such that the stimulus payment plus the existing countable resources will not exceed the typical $2,000 resource limit, no spend down will be required.  Recipients whose existing countable resources are greater than $800 will have 12 months to spend their resources down to below the resourse limit.