Written by a parent, not a doctor. Nothing here is medical advice.

Childhood Cancer Lantern
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Rhode Island program

Medicaid without counting parents’ income (Katie Beckett)

A separate Medicaid route for a child with serious care needs. It counts the child’s own money, not the parents’ income or savings.

What it is

A separate Medicaid route for a child with serious care needs. It counts the child’s own money, not the parents’ income or savings.

Katie Beckett can open Medicaid when the ordinary child income limit gets in the way. The state checks disability and how much care your child needs at home. A cancer diagnosis alone does not settle those care tests.

Eligibility rules
  • Your child must be under 19, live in Rhode Island and meet Social Security’s disability criteria.
  • In 2026 the child’s own income is tested against the $994 monthly federal benefit rate. The child resource ceiling is $4,000.
  • The care level must meet a hospital, psychiatric hospital, nursing facility or intermediate-care standard. Home care must be safe and cost no more than institutional care.
  • The childhood leukemia listing lasts at least 24 months from diagnosis or relapse, or 12 months from transplant, whichever is later. It does not replace the separate level-of-care test.
What you get
  • Full Medicaid coverage for an eligible child, including hospital care, cancer treatment and medicines.
  • Nursing and personal care at home when approved, plus rides to appointments.
  • Parents’ earnings and savings stay out of this financial test.
What this covers
  • With other insurance, Medicaid pays second through fee-for-service coverage. Without other insurance, the child enters managed care.
  • The under-21 EPSDT benefit covers medically necessary services within Medicaid categories, with service-specific approval requirements.
  • Katie Beckett gives an eligible child Medicaid coverage, but it does not make every family expense disappear. Ask the Katie Beckett unit and billing team to confirm any program charge and whether work-plan premiums or noncovered services would still be yours before comparing the options.
If you decide to apply
  1. Ask the hospital social worker to help you contact the Katie Beckett unit for its parent questionnaire.
  2. Ask the oncology team for the clinical evaluation describing your child’s needs and safe care at home.
  3. Gather medical records, identity documents and details of income and accounts belonging to your child.

Katie Beckett unit: 401-574-8474 · Official page ↗

After you ask
  • The decision standard is 90 days from a completed application. The clinical records are part of that application.
  • A denial can concern disability, level of care or the child’s finances. The notice identifies the issue and appeal route.
Good to know

There is no waiting list for this route. The care test is the hard part: a cancer diagnosis alone does not meet it.

Other details
  • Ordinary RIte Care uses a simpler income route when it fits.
  • An account in a grandparent’s own name is not automatically your child’s money. Custodial accounts and trusts need a separate ownership-and-availability review: some qualifying custodial funds are not countable while the child cannot access them, but withdrawals or control at a later age can matter. Ask the eligibility specialist to review the actual account or trust documents before moving money.

Federal background: Katie Beckett is one disability-related Medicaid route. SSI-linked Medicaid and other disability pathways have separate eligibility rules.

Official sources
Ask your social worker

“Could our child meet the care test for Katie Beckett, and what would it change alongside our insurance? If it makes sense, could you help us gather the clinical evaluation?”

Why I’m asking: I want to know whether our child can get Medicaid even if our earnings are above the ordinary limit.

More background and detailed requirements
Additional program information and published rules

Who does what

The three parts, side by side. The agency decides; nobody on this page does.

You

Call the unit for the forms, fill in the parent questionnaire, and describe honestly what care your child needs at home.

Your social worker

The hospital social worker starts the file and tracks the 90 days.

The care team

The oncology team writes the clinical evaluation and the level-of-care description. That is the part that decides it.

Who decides
The Katie Beckett unit at the state health and human services office.
Ask your social worker
“Our income is over the RIte Care line. Can we apply for Katie Beckett, and can the team write the clinical evaluation this week?”

How to apply

First step: Call 401-574-8474 for the current forms, and ask the oncology team to write the clinical evaluation now.

  1. Call the Katie Beckett unit on 401-574-8474 and ask for the current forms.
  2. Ask the oncology team to write the level-of-care and home-care description this week.
  3. Send the clinical evidence with the application rather than after it: the state's own fact sheet says early evidence speeds the decision.

Official application / program page ↗

Where it starts: Ask the hospital social worker to start it. The unit uses the parent or guardian questionnaire and a clinical evaluation, with the medical records behind it.

What to gather

  • Your child's identity document and Social Security number
  • Medical records and the oncology team's description of care at home
  • Account and trust documents showing who owns the money, who can access it, and any custodial restrictions.

How long: The rule allows 90 days from a completed application. The fact sheet says early clinical evidence speeds it up; a measured current wait was not published.

What a yes looks like

A Medicaid card for your child. With no other insurance the child goes into the managed-care programme; with other insurance the coverage is fee-for-service behind it.

What a no looks like, and the next move

Ask which of the three tests failed: disability, level of care or the child's own money. Each is appealed differently, and the level-of-care one is answered by the doctors.

Watch out

  • It is a clinical decision too: the doctors must describe a hospital or nursing-home level of care given safely at home.
  • Parents’ own savings do not count. The eligibility specialist checks ownership and access to accounts or trusts for your child. A grandparent’s account is not automatically the child’s resource, and some custodial funds are excluded while unavailable.
  • It is not a waiver, so nobody should tell you there is a waiting list.

The numbers and the rules

The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 10, 2026.

What it is worth

Full Medicaid for your child with no test on what parents earn. The child's own limits are $994 a month and $4,000 in savings.

  • $994/month — Child's own monthly income standard (the 2026 federal benefit rate)
  • $4,000 — Child's own resource ceiling

Covers: Full Medicaid: hospital, clinic, chemotherapy and medicines · Home nursing and personal care when approved · Rides to appointments · Anything medically necessary for a child under 21, through the children's benefit

Legal protection: Parents' income and resources are not available to the calculation

What it costs the family: The state's fact sheet says there is no cost to the family. That page is from 2023 and has not been reissued.

The eligibility facts, as published

Age
under 19
Age max exclusive
19
Income
the child's own countable income against the federal benefit rate of $994 a month; parents' income is not counted
Resources
$4,000 of the child's own; parents' resources are not counted
Disability
meets the Social Security disability criteria
Level of care
hospital, psychiatric hospital, nursing facility or intermediate care level of care, safely served at home at no greater cost
Residency
Rhode Island
Processing standard
90 days from a completed application

Decisions this site cannot make: Katie Beckett unit disability determination · Katie Beckett unit level-of-care determination

Expect friction on: Getting the clinical evaluation written while the family is in the middle of induction

The trap: This is a state-plan option, not a waiver, so there is no waiting list and no slot to wait for. But it is a clinical decision as well as a financial one: the child must also meet a hospital or nursing-facility level of care and be safely cared for at home for no more than that would cost. Leukemia on its own does not replace those assessments.

Where I read this

← Back to your options