[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2836 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2836

 To clarify the application of spousal impoverishment protections for 
    recipients of home and community-based services under Medicaid.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 21, 2016

 Mr. Franken (for himself and Ms. Klobuchar) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance

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                                 A BILL


 
 To clarify the application of spousal impoverishment protections for 
    recipients of home and community-based services under Medicaid.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Protecting Families with 
Disabilities Act of 2016''.

SEC. 2. CLARIFICATION REGARDING APPLICATION OF MEDICAID SPOUSAL 
              IMPOVERISHMENT PROTECTIONS TO RECIPIENTS OF HOME AND 
              COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICES.

    (a) In General.--Section 2404 of the Patient Protection and 
Affordable Care Act (42 U.S.C. 1396r-5 note) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``During'' and inserting the following:
    ``(a) In General.--During''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) Rule of Construction.--During the period in which subsection 
(a) is in effect, nothing in subsection (a) or section 1924 of the 
Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396r-5) shall be construed as 
prohibiting a State that, as of January 1, 2014, had a home and 
community-based waiver approved under section 1915(c) of such Act (42 
U.S.C. 1396n(c)) under which the State disregarded the income and 
assets of the individual's spouse in determining the initial and 
ongoing financial eligibility of an individual for services provided 
under such home and community-based waiver in place of the spousal 
impoverishment provisions applied under such section 1924, from 
continuing to disregard the individual's spousal income and assets for 
purposes of making such determinations while such waiver remains in 
effect.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall 
take effect as if enacted on January 1, 2014.
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