It has been reported that the expansion of eligibility for the Employed Individuals with Disabilities (EID) program which was proposed in May 2022 and came into effect later in the year has now been quashed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Under the expansion working Marylanders with disabilities who wished to buy in to Medicaid no longer had to conform to an income limit and would only need to meet the countable resource limit of $10,000 for an individual ($15,000 for a married applicant) at the time of the initial application.

Sadly, it now appears that the old, restrictive rules are back in place and once more the countable income rate is capped at 300% of the Federal Poverty Level. That means that unmarried applicants have to have monthly countable income of under $3,645, while a married applicant and their spouse will only qualify if their combined income doesn’t exceed $4,930 a month. The resource limits remain the same and count even during redeterminations.

A request has been submitted to CMS to gain confirmation of their decision and any reasons behind their thinking. A check of their press releases and updates on the website has no mention of the change, which may reflect a certain amount of reluctance to acknowledge their role in this backwards step. the Maryland Department of Health website records the new income limits without mention of the reversal of fortune.