Alaska Administrative Code
Title 7 - Health and Social Services
Part 7 - Medicaid Assistance Eligibility
Chapter 100 - Medicaid Eligibility
Article 1 - Common Medicaid Eligibility Requirements
7 AAC 100.056 - Five-year bar

(a) Unless exempt under 7 AAC 100.058, a qualified alien as described in 7 AAC 100.052 who enters the United States on or after August 22, 1996, is not eligible for Medicaid for a period of five years beginning on the date the alien physically entered into the United States. A nonqualified alien who enters the United States on or after August 22, 1996, must obtain qualified alien status before the five-year bar begins. The five-year bar begins on the date the nonqualified alien obtains qualified alien status, not the date the alien physically entered the United States.

(b) The department will determine if an alien who arrived in the United States before August 22, 1996, is a qualified alien. If the alien was admitted as a qualified alien before August 22, 1996, the five-year bar does not apply. If the alien was admitted as a nonqualified alien before August 22, 1996, and has since obtained qualified alien status, the alien is not subject to the five-year bar if the alien remained continuously present in the United States while a nonqualified alien. Any single absence from the United States of more than 30 days, or a total aggregate of absences of more than 90 days, interrupts continuous presence. Once an alien who entered the United States after August 22, 1996, obtains qualified alien status, the alien does not have to remain continuously present in the United States in order to avoid application of the five-year bar. For the purposes of this subsection, an alien who entered the United States without proper documentation or who overstayed the alien's visa is a nonqualified alien.