The Texas Supreme Court heard oral argument on a "prior occupancy" residency rule of the Department of Health and Human Services Commission that has been denying Medicaid benefits to a class of individuals.

The state agency is asking the court to reverse a Third District Court of Appeals order affirming a trial court finding that, "Under the Commission's argument, an applicant can exempt his home if he lives there for one day before entering a nursing facility, but an applicant living in an apartment and in the process of buying a home who, the day before closing, suffers a fall requiring nursing care cannot."


Related Story: Texas Appeals Court Guts State Policy Denying Medicaid to Nursing Home Residents


Natalie D. Thompson of the Office of Solicitor General, in requesting the rule be reinstated, said the commission rule requires that an applicant for Medicaid that wants to treat property as their home, they must have actually lived there.