Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Kentucky runs the standard 300%-of-SSI income cap for nursing-home Medicaid, but its own current regulations also keep alive a separate, much lower medically-needy “basic maintenance” standard of $235 a month for a household of one. Most secondary sources describe Kentucky purely as a cap-and-trust state; 907 KAR 20:020 shows a second, still-active pathway most write-ups leave out.
The primary path: a 300% special income level
907 KAR 20:005 sets the rule in the state’s own words: “an individual in an institution meeting appropriate patient status criteria who, if not institutionalized, would not be eligible for SSI benefits or optional state supplement benefits due to income shall be eligible under a special income level set at 300 percent of the SSI benefit amount payable for an individual with no income.” That is the plain federal-style cap, currently around $2,982 a month.
The fallback most write-ups skip
907 KAR 20:020 separately sets a medically-needy “basic maintenance” standard at “$235” a month for family size one, current as of its most recent amendment. This is a genuinely different, much lower figure serving a different eligibility pathway, still on the books alongside the 300% special income level, not superseded by it.
Why this is worth knowing before assuming Kentucky is cap-only
A family that reads only the 300% figure and concludes Kentucky offers no medically-needy route at all is reading an incomplete picture of the state’s own current regulations. Which pathway actually applies to a given nursing-facility application is a caseworker determination this page does not settle; the point is that both routes are live in Kentucky’s own code.
| Citation | 907 KAR 20:005 (Kentucky Administrative Regulations, Medicaid special income level) and 907 KAR 20:020 (medically needy basic maintenance standard) |
| What it says | “an individual in an institution meeting appropriate patient status criteria who, if not institutionalized, would not be eligible for SSI benefits or optional state supplement benefits due to income shall be eligible under a special income level set at 300 percent of the SSI benefit amount payable for an individual with no income. … $235 (family size 1, 907 KAR 20:020, Section 1(1)(a))” |
This page covers the income eligibility figure itself. How a state handles income above that figure (a Qualified Income Trust, a medically needy spend-down, or something else) is covered on Kentucky’s excess income mechanism page.
Every citation on this page was read directly from the state’s own Medicaid agency, administrative code, or official eligibility manual this session. General information, not legal or financial advice; a figure this specific can change with a budget cycle or a rule amendment, and a county or state caseworker has the final say on any individual application.