350-1        CONTINUED BENEFITS FOR TEMPORARILY INSTITUTIONALIZED RECIPIENT

A Senior Benefits recipient may continue to receive assistance for up to three months while living in a long-term care facility, psychiatric facility, Alaska Pioneers’ Home, or the Alaska Veterans’ Home that would otherwise result in ineligibility for Senior Benefits.  To qualify for continued Senior Benefits, the individual must meet and fulfill all of the following requirements:

1. The individual must be eligible for Senior Benefits for the month that he or she enters the institution.  
   
    
2. The individual must live throughout the affected month in one or more public medical or psychiatric institutions (including the Alaska Psychiatric Institute) or in any other type of Medicaid facility.
   
    
3. A physician must certify, in writing, that the individual will live in the institution for 90 days or less.  The physician must prepare and date this certification by the 90th day from admission to the institution, or by the time the individual is actually released if the release happens before the 90 days have elapsed.
   
    
4. The individual, or someone acting on the individual's behalf, must show the need to pay some or all the expenses of maintaining a home or living arrangement to which the individual may return.  A written statement that specifies this need is enough to verify the individual's need to maintain a home or living arrangement, unless the Senior Benefits worker has reason to believe otherwise.