Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: In Montana, a Medicaid nursing-facility resident’s Personal Needs Allowance is $50.00/Month; the amount of their own income they keep for personal use each month, with the rest going to the facility as the patient-pay amount toward the cost of care. That is well above the $30/month federal floor set in 1988 and never raised since. Montana Nursing Facility and Swing Bed Manual, section “Personal Resources (ARM 37.40.302)” states the figure directly.
Why Montana’s figure isn’t the federal floor
Federal Medicaid law requires only a $30-a-month personal needs allowance as a floor; a state is free to set its own, higher figure by statute, regulation, or agency policy. Montana has done exactly that, setting $50.00/Month, effective manual page shows a 04/25/2017 revision date, presented as the current standing manual.
What the allowance covers, and what it doesn’t
The personal needs allowance pays for the things a facility’s daily rate doesn’t cover: clothing, haircuts, snacks, a phone or television, small personal purchases. It is deducted before the rest of a resident’s income is applied to the facility bill as the patient-pay (or post-eligibility treatment of income, PETI) amount. It is not extra money on top of what Medicaid already pays the facility; it is the one slice of a resident’s own income that Medicaid rules guarantee the resident, not the facility, keeps.
One exception or caveat worth knowing
The allowance varies by income source: $50 for retirement/Social Security income (the standard figure most residents fall under), $30 for SSI-only income, $90 for a VA reduced pension.
| Citation | Montana Nursing Facility and Swing Bed Manual, section “Personal Resources (ARM 37.40.302)” |
| What it says | “Personal needs allowance is money used for the resident’s personal expenses. Retirement or Social Security or both $50.00” |
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 facility or state caseworker has the final say on any individual case.