Editorial Policy
This page describes how we source, verify, and review the information on Medicaid Basics, and who is accountable for it.
Sourcing standard
Every dollar figure, income limit, and eligibility rule on this site is sourced to a primary source: a state Medicaid agency's own published figures, or federal guidance from CMS, the Social Security Administration, or the Federal Register. We link the source and date next to the figures it supports.
We do not publish a figure we cannot trace to one of those sources. When a state's rule is genuinely unclear, we say so on the page rather than guessing or presenting a national average as though it were your state's number. Secondary sources are used to find our way to a primary document, never as a substitute for one.
Where the figures live
Every published figure on this site is rendered from one central data file, and each figure carries its own source link and the date we last verified it. Nothing is typed by hand into the text of a page. That is deliberate: it means a figure cannot go stale in one place while staying correct in another, and one update reaches every page that mentions it at once.
Author and reviewer
Written and reviewed by Owen Hastings, founder of Medicaid Basics. Owen writes about Medicaid because he has lived it: he was on Medicaid himself for many years, through his own disability, and cared for a loved one who was on it too. Between them that meant years of applications, income and asset limits, renewals, and the agency paperwork that decides whether coverage holds.
Owen is not an attorney, a financial adviser, or a government employee, and he claims no professional credentials. Nothing on this site is legal or financial advice. The authority here rests on cited primary sources rather than on the author, which is exactly why every figure carries its source. For advice about your own situation, speak to an elder law attorney or your state Medicaid agency.
The author is also the reviewer. We do not list a separate medical, legal, or financial reviewer, because there is not one. If that changes, this page will name the reviewer and their credentials before any byline claims a review we did not perform.
Review cadence
Federal and state Medicaid figures change on a predictable schedule, so we re-verify on that schedule rather than waiting to be told a page has gone stale:
- Each October: the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, and the figures that move with it.
- December and January: the CMS bulletin covering spousal resource allowances, resource limits, and home equity limits.
- April through July: the CMS bulletin covering the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance.
- Each September: the state penalty divisor updates that land on that schedule.
- Every quarter: a rotating spot-check of ten states against their own agency pages. California is re-checked on every pass, because it is in the middle of a multi-year transition and carries the highest risk of a stale number.
Each page shows the date it was last reviewed. Where a page carries a figure, that date tells you when we last put the figure next to its source and confirmed the two still agree.
Corrections
If you find something here that is wrong, out of date, or unclear, tell us and we will fix it. A correction to a figure is made in the data file, which updates every page carrying that figure at once. If a correction changes the substance of what a page told you, we say so on the page rather than quietly editing it.
What we do not do
We do not help you file a Medicaid application, and we do not sell anything that presents itself as an eligibility determination. We are not a government agency and we are not affiliated with Medicaid, CMS, or any state Medicaid program. Where a page carries a link that earns us a referral fee, we say so above the link rather than in a footnote. How this site makes money is set out in full on our How We Make Money page.