Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: In Oregon, a Medicaid nursing-facility resident’s Personal Needs Allowance is $81.28/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. Oregon Dept. of Human Services, OAR 461-155-0250: Income and Payment Standard; OSIPM states the figure directly.
Why Oregon’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. Oregon has done exactly that, setting $81.28/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
Residents whose VA pension is based on unreimbursed medical expenses keep $90/month instead.
| Citation | Oregon Dept. of Human Services, OAR 461-155-0250: Income and Payment Standard; OSIPM |
| What it says | “an individual receiving Medicaid services in a nursing facility or an Intermediate Care Facility-Intellectually Disabled (ICF-ID) is allowed the following amounts for clothing and personal incidentals: (a) For an individual who receives a Veterans (VA) pension based on unreimbursed medical expenses (UME), $90 is allowed. (b) For all other individuals, $81.28 is allowed.” |
Figures verified against OAR 461-155-0250 (Effective 1-01-26, as published by Oregon DHS) 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.
Related: use the Medicaid spend-down calculator to estimate how much you would need to spend down to qualify for long-term-care Medicaid in your state.