Community Spouse Owned Annuities are no longer available resources for Medicaid Purposes

In a decision on April 20, 2010 out of the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals, the appellate court reversed the trial court and barred the Missouri State Family Support Division from counting a community spouse's ownership of a commercial annuity as an "available resource" to disqualify an institutionalized spouse from Medicaid assistance. The court found that treating a community spouse's income stream from a commercial annuity as an available resource which denied coverage for the institutionalized spouse for Medicaid assistance was a violation of federal Medicaid law.