According to an addendum to the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) Administrative Directive (ADM) 08, it states “ Verification that the income was placed into the trust is required. In order to eliminate the need to verify this on a monthly basis, it is recommended that you advise the recipient to divert the income directly to the exception trust.”

Even though the Verification of Deposit addendum is a state wide policy, it must be implemented by the specific counties. This is where it can become problematic because there is a disagreement amongst the specific counties interpretation of the implementation of this policy.  The disagreeing point is when verification is required by the county.  Some counties ask for verification only when it is time for re-certification of Medicaid whereas others ask for verification monthly.  It is in both the county’s’ and consumer’s best interest for the county to follow the annual verification over the monthly.  If the annual method is followed, the consumer is not placed in jeopardy of having their benefits discontinued and there is less pressure placed upon counties with massive amounts of paperwork to approve.

Monroe County follows the annual verification method which as stated above benefits our consumers.  Recent changes have occurred in Washington County who once was a strong believer in the monthly verification process has moved to the annual verification process effective as early as July 2013.  Now that Washington County has moved from the Monthly method to processing Verifications of Deposit annually, we feel other counties shall follow their lead making a more universal approach state wide.