Updated August 27, 2026. Quick answer: South Dakota’s chapter on community spouses puts a deadline on the state rather than on the family: “The department must complete the assessment within 45 days of the request unless delay is due to nonreceipt of documentation or verification from the requesting party or a third party.” The chapter’s own rule on determining the spousal share has been repealed, and the work is done by the general resource rules instead.
What South Dakota actually sets out
| What the state provides | What it says |
|---|---|
| What triggers an assessment | “The department shall assess a couple’s combined countable resources to determine the community spouse’s share if all of the following occur: (1) An application for assistance with nursing facility or home and community based waiver services has been made or an institutionalized spouse, the community spouse, or the couple’s authorized representative has requested the assessment;” |
| The 30-day expectation | “(2) The institutionalized spouse was admitted to a hospital, nursing facility, or intermediate care facility or began receiving home and community based waivered services after September 29, 1989, and is expected to remain in the facility or continue receiving home and community-based waivered services for at least 30 consecutive days; and (3) The institutionalized spouse has a community spouse.” |
| The 45-day deadline | “The department must complete the assessment within 45 days of the request unless delay is due to nonreceipt of documentation or verification from the requesting party or a third party.” |
| Which rules do the work | “When determining the spousal share of resources, the department shall apply the rules established in chapter 67:46:05 to both the institutionalized spouse and the community spouse.” |
| The order of income deductions | “Deductions from the income of the institutionalized spouse shall be allowed in the following order: (1) The personal needs allowance specified in § 67:46:06:05; (2) The spousal maintenance and excess shelter allowance specified in § 67:46:07:12; (3) The maintenance allowance for dependents living with the community spouse as specified in § 67:46:07:13; (4) The deduction for premiums paid on health insurance policies according to § 67:46:07:04; and (5) Unpaid medical expenses incurred during a period which is no more than three months prior to the month of the most recent application for long term care services.” |
How it works in practice
- An assessment is not automatic; three things have to be true, and the first of them can be started by the family: “The department shall assess a couple’s combined countable resources to determine the community spouse’s share if all of the following occur: (1) An application for assistance with nursing facility or home and community based waiver services has been made or an institutionalized spouse, the community spouse, or the couple’s authorized representative has requested the assessment;” A couple may request the assessment without applying for assistance at all.
- The second condition is the familiar 30-day expectation, written to cover waiver services as well as facilities: “(2) The institutionalized spouse was admitted to a hospital, nursing facility, or intermediate care facility or began receiving home and community based waivered services after September 29, 1989, and is expected to remain in the facility or continue receiving home and community-based waivered services for at least 30 consecutive days; and (3) The institutionalized spouse has a community spouse.”
- The deadline is the provision worth holding the state to: “The department must complete the assessment within 45 days of the request unless delay is due to nonreceipt of documentation or verification from the requesting party or a third party.” The rule adds, in terms, that the department may not use that time standard as a waiting period — which is to say the 45 days are a limit on the agency, not a queue the family must sit in.
- South Dakota repealed its own rule on determining the spousal share, and the chapter now routes the question elsewhere: “When determining the spousal share of resources, the department shall apply the rules established in chapter 67:46:05 to both the institutionalized spouse and the community spouse.” Anyone reading the chapter for the computation will not find it there.
- Where the chapter is specific is on the order income is applied in, which decides how much reaches the spouse at home: “Deductions from the income of the institutionalized spouse shall be allowed in the following order: (1) The personal needs allowance specified in § 67:46:06:05; (2) The spousal maintenance and excess shelter allowance specified in § 67:46:07:12; (3) The maintenance allowance for dependents living with the community spouse as specified in § 67:46:07:13; (4) The deduction for premiums paid on health insurance policies according to § 67:46:07:04; and (5) Unpaid medical expenses incurred during a period which is no more than three months prior to the month of the most recent application for long term care services.”
What the allowance is for, and why protecting the spouse at home is a federal requirement rather than a state kindness, is explained on the community spouse resource allowance page. The date the couple’s resources are counted is its own subject, on the snapshot date page, and the monthly income allowance that runs alongside it is on the MMMNA page. This page is the record for South Dakota.
What this page does not settle
- This page does not state South Dakota’s minimum and maximum resource figures. The chapter quoted here does not publish them, and the rules it points to for the computation were not read for this page.
- This page reads one source: South Dakota Administrative Rule Chapter 67:46:07, Community Spouses, as published by the South Dakota Legislature. It is the state’s own publication on this rule, but no state puts its whole treatment of a couple’s resources in a single document, and a detail that decides your case may sit in one this page did not read.
- The resource rule is one hurdle. The income rules for the spouse at home are separate and are decided on their own numbers, the level-of-care test is separate again, and the transfer-of-assets look-back is separate from all of them. Clearing this rule does not clear any of the others.
- Every quotation here was read against the source on August 27, 2026. The federal minimum and maximum figures are reset each January, and a state can revise its own rule without the page around it changing. Open the source before you rely on a number.
Eligibility is decided by the state agency on the whole file, not by one rule on one page. Nothing here is legal advice, and no one should move, retitle or spend a couple’s savings on the strength of a web page.
Sources
The source above was retrieved and read against the state text on August 27, 2026. Every quotation on this page was checked against those bytes.
Related: South Dakota’s Long-Term Care Partnership Program status; a separate, policy-based way some families protect assets alongside this spend-down allowance.