Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Montana’s own current Table of Standards puts the monthly categorically-needy income standard for an institutionalized individual at just $30, with a separate $525 medically-needy income level, effective January 1, 2026. Neither number functions as a real ceiling the way other states’ figures do: the same document states plainly that “Otherwise eligible institutionalized individuals and spouses are income-eligible for nursing home coverage so long as their monthly nursing home costs equal or exceed their monthly income.” The real test in Montana is cost of care, not a dollar limit.
Two low numbers that are not really the point
Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services publishes, in ABD 013, “The monthly categorically needy income standard for an institutionalized individual is $30.” It separately states, “The monthly medically needy income level (MNIL) is $525.” Read alone, either number looks like an unusually strict ceiling almost nobody could meet.
Why they are not the operative limit
The same document explains the actual mechanism directly above those figures: “Otherwise eligible institutionalized individuals and spouses are income-eligible for nursing home coverage so long as their monthly nursing home costs equal or exceed their monthly income.” In practice this means someone whose income is well above $30 or $525 is still income-eligible, because nursing-home costs routinely run into the thousands of dollars a month, comfortably above most applicants’ income. The $30 and $525 figures set the categorization (categorically vs. medically needy) and feed the separate cost-of-care contribution calculation, rather than acting as a pass/fail income ceiling.
What this page does not settle
Montana’s own document lists these figures without a separate inline effective date next to the $30/$525 lines themselves; the document’s own overall effective date (January 1, 2026, superseding a July 1, 2025 version) is used here, but this page does not claim to know whether the $30/$525 figures themselves changed between those two versions.
| Citation | Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, ABD 013, “Table of Standards: Nursing Home Residents – Income” |
| What it says | “Otherwise eligible institutionalized individuals and spouses are income-eligible for nursing home coverage so long as their monthly nursing home costs equal or exceed their monthly income. … The monthly categorically needy income standard for an institutionalized individual is $30. … The monthly medically needy income level (MNIL) is $525.” |
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 Montana’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.