Wyoming program
Medicaid after a long hospital stay
A qualifying long hospital stay can let Wyoming Medicaid review your child’s income separately from yours.
What it is
A qualifying long hospital stay can let Wyoming Medicaid review your child’s income separately from yours.
A long admission may change how Wyoming counts parental income. Your child must also meet the institutional category’s disability and financial rules. The Long-Term Care Eligibility Unit checks the admission and coverage dates.
Eligibility rules
- A long admission can change how parental income is counted under an institutional Medicaid category. The child must meet that category's disability and other requirements; being under 19 and in the hospital is not enough by itself.
- For 2026, the reviewed institutional category uses an individual monthly income standard of $2,982. The child's counted income and any patient contribution still need the state's calculation.
- The ordinary individual resource limit for this SSI-related category is $2,000 in countable resources. Wyoming's rule has separate age and long-stay tests for counting parental income, and the eligibility unit must identify the exact category and qualifying institution for this admission.
What you get
- Full Medicaid coverage if your child qualifies using their own income.
Coverage and costs
- The purpose is to remove parental income from this eligibility calculation. The child must still meet the applicable Medicaid requirements.
If you decide to apply
- Ask the hospital social worker to discuss institutional deeming with the Long-Term Care Eligibility Unit.
- Have admission dates, the expected length of stay and details of income belonging to your child ready.
The Long-Term Care Eligibility Unit of the Wyoming Department of Health · 1-855-203-2936 · Official page ↗
After you apply
- Your care team can document admission dates and the expected stay for the long-term care unit.
- Once a stay has passed 30 consecutive days, the state can count only your child's own income. Ask the eligibility unit for the first covered date and what continues after discharge; it is not automatic on day 31.
Good to know
A long admission opens a review, not automatic approval. The eligibility unit must confirm which day the rule starts.
Other details
- Chapter 18 uses more than 30 consecutive days for the institutional parental-deeming exception and completion of 30 days for authorization. These are different parts of the decision, not a guarantee of day-31 coverage.
- This route is for a child under 18; from the month after the 18th birthday parents' income is no longer counted anyway.
- Military insurance does not itself rule out Medicaid. Existing Medicaid can also need a category or contribution review during a long stay or at discharge.
Official sources
“If our child's hospital stay is long enough, could Medicaid look only at our child's income? What are the limits and drawbacks, and could you help us request that review?”
Why I’m asking: A long hospital stay may offer a coverage route even when our earnings are too high.
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
Ask for it by name before the stay is over, and ask which day the count starts.
Your social worker
The hospital social worker confirms the admission dates and raises it with the eligibility unit.
The care team
Confirms the expected length of the admission in writing.
- Who decides
- The Long-Term Care Eligibility Unit of the Wyoming Department of Health.
- Ask your social worker
- “Wyoming's rules say a parent's income is not counted for a child in an institution more than thirty consecutive days. Can we ask the Long-Term Care Eligibility Unit to look at my child on that basis?”
How to apply
First step: Ask the hospital social worker to raise it with the Long-Term Care Eligibility Unit on 1-855-203-2936 while the admission is still running.
- If a long admission is planned, ask the social worker to raise this before day thirty, not after.
- Call the Long-Term Care Eligibility Unit on 1-855-203-2936 and ask for the rule by name.
- Ask in writing which day the count starts from.
Official application / program page ↗
Where it starts: Call the Long-Term Care Eligibility Unit and ask for the child to be looked at under the institutional deeming rule.
What to gather
- The admission and expected discharge dates in writing
- Your child's own income and savings, if any
How long: Not published. Wyoming allows 90 days on an application while a disability decision is pending.
What a yes looks like
A letter opening Wyoming Medicaid for the child without your income in the sum.
What a no looks like, and the next move
Ask whether the refusal was about the number of days or about the category, and get the answer in writing.
Watch out
- Nobody offers this. Ask for it by name and ask the long-term care unit, not the ordinary application line.
- Wyoming's own pages say thirty days in one place and more than thirty in another, so do not count on day thirty.
- It is the admission that opens it, so raise it during the stay rather than after discharge.
The numbers and the rules
The arcane layer, kept on purpose. Checked September 11, 2026.
What it is worth
Full Wyoming Medicaid decided on the child's own income after more than thirty consecutive days in an institution. The individual standard is $2,982 a month.
- $30 — Consecutive days in an institution after which a parent's income stops counting
- $2,982/month — Published individual income standard used for these categories
Covers: Full Wyoming Medicaid once approved · Coverage decided on the child's own income and resources
Legal protection: A parent's income is not available to a child institutionalised more than thirty consecutive days
What it costs the family: No premium was published for this route.
The eligibility facts, as published
- Age
- under 19 for the child categories
- Income
- the child's own income against the individual standard, once the deeming rule applies
- Gate
- more than thirty consecutive days in an institution, or an application under a home-care waiver or the working-disabled route
- Residency
- Wyoming
Decisions this site cannot make: Long-Term Care Eligibility Unit financial determination
The trap: Nobody offers this. Ask for it by name, using the rule, and ask the long-term care unit rather than the ordinary application line. Wyoming's own pages disagree about whether the test is thirty days or more than thirty, so do not assume day thirty is enough.
Where I read this
- Wyoming Medicaid Chapter 18, Medicaid Eligibility — Wyoming Department of Health, read September 10, 2026
- Programs and Eligibility — Wyoming Department of Health, read September 10, 2026
- Eligibility Operations Manual, Table 1A — Wyoming Department of Health, read September 10, 2026