Florida long-term care Medicaid, explained
Plain-English guides to Florida long-term care Medicaid: the 2026 limits, Qualified Income Trusts, the look-back, spend-down, assisted living, and how to apply.
Florida Medicaid Guides
Everything a Florida family needs to understand before applying for nursing home, assisted living, or home care Medicaid, from a Medicaid application service founded and directed by a Florida elder law attorney. Start with the 2026 figures ($2,982 income cap, $2,000 asset limit) and go from there.
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1
What Florida Medicaid planning is, who needs it, how the process works from screening to approval, what it costs, and how Senior Care Resources serves families in every Florida county.
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2
Every 2026 Florida Medicaid eligibility number for nursing home and assisted living care, with the effective dates and a plain-English explanation of how each is applied.
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3
How a Qualified Income Trust lets a Floridian with income over the Medicaid cap qualify for nursing home or assisted living Medicaid, and how it must be run month to month.
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4
The Florida Medicaid look-back rule, the penalty formula, the exempt transfers, and the options when a gift has already been made.
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5
Countable versus exempt assets under Florida Medicaid, and the permitted ways to reduce countable assets to $2,000 without a penalty.
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6
The Florida SMMC Long-Term Care program for assisted living and home care: financial and medical eligibility, the wait list and priority scoring, and what the program does and does not pay for.
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7
Step-by-step process for a Florida ICP (nursing home) Medicaid application, including the documents needed, how DCF processes the case, and what happens after approval.
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8
Florida Medicaid rules for married couples when one spouse needs long-term care: the community spouse resource allowance, the monthly income allowance, protection of the home, and spousal refusal.
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9
How to decide between a Medicaid application service and an elder law attorney for a Florida long-term care Medicaid case, with the situations that require a lawyer.
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10
What Medicare, Medigap and Medicare Advantage pay for a nursing home stay, when the coverage ends, and why the Florida Medicaid application should start before Medicare stops.
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11
How Florida long-term care Medicaid treats the home: exempt at any value while it is the home or the applicant intends to return, the 2026 equity limit and its exceptions, and the risks of selling or transferring it.
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12
What happens to a Florida Medicaid recipient when the spouse at home dies first and leaves everything to them, why Florida's elective share matters, and the documents a couple should review now.
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13
The DCF rules for retirement accounts in a Florida long-term care Medicaid application: payout status for the applicant, the different rule for the spouse at home, the effect on income, and the cost of spending the wrong asset.
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14
Why paying a Florida nursing home privately before knowing the Medicaid spend-down often costs families money they could have kept, with the spend-down arithmetic for married couples and what to do instead.
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Find out where you stand before you apply
We'll email you a short two-page intake form about your family member's care, income, and savings. Once you send it back, a member of our staff reviews it personally and calls you to talk through where things stand and what comes next. Families anywhere in Florida. No cost, no obligation.
Call (239) 977-5175This page is general information about Florida Medicaid, not legal advice, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. Medicaid rules change and every family’s facts are different.
Senior Care Resources is a separate company from Zacharia Frey PLLC. Its Medicaid application services are not legal services, and no attorney-client protection applies to them. When an attorney becomes involved, that is a separate legal representation with the law firm.