Arkansas Department of Human Services, Appellant v. Gordon Pierce, Appellee

Summary

The court held that federal law permits Arkansas to count a community spouse’s IRA and 401(k) as resources when determining an institutionalized spouse’s Medicaid eligibility. It concluded that the Medicaid Act’s “no more restrictive” SSI methodology does not control because the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act supersedes inconsistent provisions and does not resolve retirement-account treatment, leaving that issue to the states. The court therefore reversed and remanded the circuit court’s contrary order. Justice Hoofman, dissenting, would have affirmed because the MCCA did not specifically eliminate the SSI exclusion for a community spouse’s retirement accounts.