Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: In District of Columbia, a Medicaid nursing-facility resident’s Personal Needs Allowance is $109.00/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. Transmittal 26-02: Personal Needs Allowance Increase, DC Department of Health Care Finance states the figure directly.
Why District of Columbia’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. District of Columbia has done exactly that, setting $109.00/Month, effective January 1, 2026.
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
DHCF adjusts this figure annually by the federal COLA (per a prior transmittal, 23-13), so it changes each January.
| Citation | Transmittal 26-02: Personal Needs Allowance Increase, DC Department of Health Care Finance |
| What it says | “Effective January 1, 2026, the monthly PNA for institutionalized long-term care residents will increase to $109.” |
Figures verified against DC Department of Health Care Finance Transmittals 26-02 and 23-13 and 42 U.S.C. 1396a(q) on September 30, 2026.
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.