MassHealth: Medicaid in Massachusetts

by:   Brian E. Barreira, Esq.

When applying for MassHealth long-term care benefits to pay for nursing home care in Massachusetts, it can be expensive to obtain copies of up to 5 years of banking information. Under Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 118E, Section 23A , banks are required to provide this information free of charge if the information has been requested by a representative of MassHealth. In order to comply with this law, the Executive Office of Health and Human Services of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has prepared pre-signed letters that can be completed by or on behalf of the MassHealth applicant. There are four versions of the letter, and the one to be used would be based on which office that the MassHealth application has been filed with.

If the application is filed in the Taunton office, use this form: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/masshealth/appforms/fir-1-taunton.pdf

If the application is filed in the Chelsea office, use this form: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/masshealth/appforms/fir-1-chelsea.pdf

If the application is filed in the Tewksbury office, use this form: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/masshealth/appforms/fir-1-tewksbury.pdf

If the application is filed in the Springfield office, use this form: http://www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/masshealth/appforms/fir-1-springfield.pdf

It appears to be a requirement of these letters that a MassHealth application be already filed. In that situation, time is usually very limited to comply with MassHealth’s written requests for verifications of banking transactions. Since you wouldn’t know whether the bank had complied with the request unless you received the bank records yourself, it is probably not a good move to request that the records be sent directly to the MassHealth Enrollment Center.