A Massachusetts bill on Medicaid coverage, introduced and still moving. Last moved July 20, 2026.
What this means for a building owner
This touches residents in nursing homes, chronic hospitals, rest homes and approved public medical places paid by the state's Medicaid program or state aid. The change is about resident spending money, not payments to the home. Each covered resident would keep the first $113.42 of monthly income, and would get the difference paid to them if income is less. The amount would go up every budget year by the same percent as state extra payments to people in their own homes. The text does not say when this starts.
What the bill does
This bill would raise the money a resident on state aid keeps each month for clothes, personal items and fun. The amount would be set at $113.42 a month. It would also rise each year by the same percent as state extra payments for people living in their own homes. One older figure of $72.80 in the current rules would be replaced with $113.42. The text does not say when this would start.
Written by AI from the bill's own Introduced text of February 27, 2025, on September 23, 2026. Not legal advice. Read the official text ›
Introduced · last moved July 20, 2026 · no effective date stated yet
Massachusetts has 341 certified nursing homes; 324 of the 335 that file a cost report show Medicaid residents, and a Medicaid payment change reaches each of them.
Official title Increasing the personal needs allowance for long term care residents
For legislation to increase the personal needs allowance for certain elderly and disabled residents residing in licensed medical facilities. Health Care Financing.
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What this affects
- Who pays, or is paid
- Medicaid pays for more, or fewer, residents. The payer mix moves for every building in Massachusetts.
- Which buildings
- 341 facilities holding 40,920 licensed beds in Massachusetts.
- The dollars, or the rule
- This bill would apply to Medicaid-eligible residents in licensed nursing facilities, chronic hospitals, rest homes, and public medical institutions in Massachusetts. It would set the monthly personal needs allowance residents keep from their own income at $113.42, replacing the current $72.80 figure referenced in one…
- Effective
- We cannot tell yet from the text. No effective date is stated yet.
- Status
- Introduced, as of July 20, 2026.
Coverage changes move the payer mix, and payer mix drives the revenue per occupied bed a buyer will underwrite.
Latest action, July 20, 2026: Bill reported favorably by committee and referred to the committee on House Ways and Means
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Every action this bill has taken, who is carrying it, committee and vote detail, and what it moves for the 341 facilities it reaches. Free to owners and operators, gone in one sign-in.
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Legislative data: LegiScan LLC (legiscan.com) · CC BY 4.0
Bill text and status: malegislature.gov · retrieved August 3, 2026