Money Follows the Person: Medicaid’s Program to Leave the Nursing Home at Day 60
By YourResourceHub Editorial Team · Reviewed by Steven Sun · 8 min read · Last updated September 22, 2026
- The minimum nursing facility stay to qualify is 60 consecutive days, not the 90 days many older articles still describe, and short-term rehabilitative care days can now count toward that total.
- Once you transition, Medicaid pays an enhanced federal share of your home and community-based services for a full 12 months.
- Money Follows the Person can pay one-time move-in costs, like a security deposit and first month’s rent, but it will not pay your rent every month after that.
- The program is funded through federal fiscal year 2027 at $450 million a year, but each state chooses whether to run one, so availability depends on where you live.
Money Follows the Person pays a Medicaid recipient’s one-time move-out costs, like a security deposit and essential furniture, after they’ve spent at least 60 consecutive days in a nursing facility, then covers a full year of home care services at an enhanced federal matching rate once they’re back in the community.
In this article
- What Money Follows the Person actually is
- Who qualifies: the residency clock, in plain terms
- What the program actually pays for
- Getting a transition coordinator assigned before you leave
- What families get wrong about Money Follows the Person
- Frequently asked questions
Frank Alvarez had been in a nursing facility outside Roanoke, Virginia for 122 days after a bad fall, and for nearly two months, Medicaid’s Money Follows the Person program had already been available to pay for his move home. Nobody on the facility’s staff had brought it up. His daughter found it by accident, searching online at 11 p.m. after another visit where her father asked, again, when he could leave.
What Money Follows the Person actually is
Money Follows the Person (MFP) is a Medicaid demonstration program, first created by Congress in 2005 and extended several times since, that helps people move out of a nursing facility or other qualifying institution and back into their own home or apartment. The idea behind the name is simple: instead of Medicaid dollars only paying for a bed in a facility, those same dollars follow the person into the community and pay for the services that let them stay there.
It is not a separate insurance plan and not something you apply for the way you’d apply for Social Security. It is a transition benefit layered on top of Medicaid you already have (or are becoming eligible for), administered state by state. Congress most recently extended MFP’s funding through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023, at $450 million a year for federal fiscal years 2024 through 2027, according to a summary of the law’s Medicaid provisions from Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. That means the program is currently active and funded, not a benefit that lapsed or shrank to a handful of states. Over the life of the program, 43 states and the District of Columbia have run an MFP program at some point, per a Congressional Research Service brief, though participation is optional, so confirm your own state’s Medicaid agency currently operates one before assuming it applies to you.
Who qualifies: the residency clock, in plain terms
To qualify, you generally need to be Medicaid-eligible, need an institutional level of care, and have lived in a qualifying institution, such as a nursing facility, for at least 60 consecutive days. That 60-day figure is the current rule. It replaced the original 90-day requirement when Congress amended the program through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, effective January 26, 2021, which also changed a second, easy-to-miss detail: days spent receiving short-term skilled nursing or rehabilitative care, which used to be excluded from the count entirely, can now count toward it, per the same Congressional Research Service brief. A short-term rehabilitative stay like this is often what leads someone into a facility in the first place, sometimes covered in part through Medicare’s 100-day skilled nursing facility benefit, before the longer Medicaid-funded stay that follows it. Two states’ own program pages confirm the 60-day figure directly: Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration and Montana’s Department of Public Health and Human Services both require 60 consecutive days, not 90.
| What changed | Old rule (before Jan. 2021) | Current rule |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum institutional stay | 90 consecutive days | 60 consecutive days |
| Short-term rehabilitative care days | Excluded from the count | Can count toward the 60 days |
| Governing law | Affordable Care Act §2403 | Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (P.L. 116-260) |
You also have to be moving to a “qualified residence”: your own or a family member’s home, an apartment with your own lease and a lockable door, or a small community residence with no more than four unrelated residents. A larger assisted living facility where you don’t hold an individual lease generally does not count, so ask your transition coordinator directly whether your planned destination qualifies before you count on the funding.
What the program actually pays for
Once you transition, two different kinds of help kick in. First, Medicaid covers your home and community-based services, things like personal care aides, home health visits, and case management, at an enhanced federal matching rate for 12 months after the move. That enhanced rate doesn’t change what you pay; it changes how much of the bill the federal government covers instead of your state, which is why states are willing to fund the transition in the first place.
Second, MFP can pay one-time “supplemental services” to actually get you moved, a category Medicaid otherwise doesn’t touch. Virginia’s Medicaid regulation for these transition services caps them at $5,000 per person, to be used within nine months of approval, and lists what qualifies: a security deposit and first month’s rent, essential furnishings like a bed, basic kitchenware, and bath linens, utility set-up fees and deposits, one-time pest control or cleaning before move-in, and moving expenses. The same regulation is explicit about what it will not pay for: ongoing monthly rent or mortgage payments, regular utility bills, or food, after that first setup. Montana’s program runs similarly, covering the first month’s rent and deposit, basic household furnishings, and even a clothing grant, according to the state’s own MFP page. The exact dollar cap and covered categories vary by state, so treat $5,000 as an illustration of the ceiling, not a national number.
Getting a transition coordinator assigned before you leave
The person who actually makes a transition happen is a transition coordinator, sometimes called a transition specialist or transition nurse depending on the state. Their job, before you’re discharged, is to help you identify a qualified place to live, line up the home care services and equipment you’ll need on day one, and coordinate the paperwork between the facility, Medicaid, and any landlord or housing program involved. Indiana’s program pairs a transition nurse with a transition specialist specifically so both the medical and logistical sides move together, rather than a discharge date arriving before housing is actually lined up.
You are not automatically assigned one. Nursing facility discharge planners are supposed to screen for MFP eligibility, but as Frank’s case shows, that doesn’t always happen on its own. The most reliable path is to ask your facility’s social worker or discharge planner directly whether you meet the 60-day residency test, and if they’re unfamiliar with the program, to call your state Medicaid agency and ask for the Money Follows the Person or nursing facility transition coordinator by name. If a facility is slow to engage or you’re not sure who to push, the free, non-means-tested Long-Term Care Ombudsman assigned to every nursing facility can advocate on a resident’s behalf while a transition is being arranged.
What families get wrong about Money Follows the Person
The single biggest misunderstanding is treating MFP like ongoing rental assistance. It is a one-time bridge, not a monthly subsidy. Once the security deposit is paid and the furniture is in place, covering rent going forward is the participant’s own responsibility, through Social Security, a pension, or another housing program such as a Section 8 voucher. Families who don’t line up a sustainable income source for ongoing rent before the move can end up right back in a housing crisis a few months later, just without an institution to fall back on.
The second mistake is assuming that because someone qualifies medically for nursing home care, they automatically don’t qualify to leave it. MFP exists specifically for people who still need Medicaid-level services but can receive them safely at home instead. The residency clock and the qualified-residence rule are administrative tests, not a judgment about how much care someone needs.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to be in a nursing home for a full 90 days to qualify for Money Follows the Person? No. The 90-day rule was replaced by a 60-day rule when Congress amended the program in 2021. If you’ve read that it’s 90 days, that information is out of date. Confirm the current figure with your state Medicaid agency, since a few states’ materials haven’t caught up to the change.
Does time spent in short-term rehab count toward the residency requirement? It can. Before 2021, short-term skilled nursing or rehabilitative stays were excluded from the count entirely. Since the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, those days can count toward the 60-day minimum, though states implement this detail differently, so ask your discharge planner how your specific facility handles it.
Will Money Follows the Person pay my rent every month after I move home? No. It pays one-time move-in costs, like a security deposit, first month’s rent, and basic furnishings, up to a state-set cap. Ongoing rent is not covered and becomes your own responsibility, typically paid from Social Security, a pension, or a separate housing assistance program.
What happens if my state doesn’t currently run a Money Follows the Person program? Participation is optional for states, so not every state has an active program right now. If yours doesn’t, ask your state Medicaid agency about other Medicaid home and community-based services waivers that fund nursing facility transitions under a different name.
Do I need a lawyer to apply for Money Follows the Person? No. There’s no legal filing involved. Start with your nursing facility’s social worker or discharge planner, or call your state Medicaid agency directly and ask to be connected with the Money Follows the Person transition coordinator.
