Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: In Kentucky, a Medicaid nursing-facility resident’s Personal Needs Allowance is $60.00/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. 907 KAR 20:035: Spousal impoverishment and nursing facility requirements for Medicaid states the figure directly.
Why Kentucky’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. Kentucky has done exactly that, setting $60.00/Month, effective February 5, 2025 (increased from $40).
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.
| Citation | 907 KAR 20:035: Spousal impoverishment and nursing facility requirements for Medicaid |
| What it says | “A personal needs allowance of sixty (60) dollars plus a mandatory withholding from income, including a mandatory payroll deduction that is a condition of employment and federal, state, and local taxes that the government requires the payer to deduct before payment is made to the payee;” |
Figures verified against 907 KAR 20:035 (Kentucky Legislative Research Commission), 42 U.S.C. 1396a(q) and 42 CFR 435.725 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.