Alaska Administrative Code
Title 7 - Health and Social Services
Part 8 - Medicaid Coverage and Payment
Chapter 140 - Medicaid Coverage; Facility and Facility-Based Services
Article 7 - Nursing Facility Services: ICF and SNF
7 AAC 140.575 - Recipient personal funds and personal property

(a) A recipient has the right to manage the recipient's personal funds unless the recipient has been adjudicated incapacitated or the recipient's incapacity has been established in accordance with AS 13.26.353, or the recipient has had a full guardian appointed under AS 13.26.116 or a conservator appointed under AS 13.26.165. A recipient or a recipient's representative may delegate holding, safeguarding, accounting, or managing responsibilities to a nursing facility. If a recipient or a recipient's representative delegates holding, safeguarding, accounting, or managing responsibilities to a nursing facility, the nursing facility shall make the account required under 42 C.F.R. 483.10(c), adopted by reference in 7 AAC 160.900, available to the recipient. The account may be used to hold the recipient's personal funds, including the amount set aside for the recipient's personal needs allowance under 7 AAC 100.558. Recipient personal funds may be used to purchase personal incidental items, supplies, or services not otherwise furnished by the nursing facility or covered by Medicaid.

(b) If a recipient delegates holding, safeguarding, accounting, or managing responsibilities to the nursing facility under (a) of this section, the nursing facility must

(c) Upon discharge or transfer, the nursing facility shall pay to a recipient 90 percent of the recipient's personal funds on deposit with the nursing facility in the recipient's name. No more than 30 days after discharge or transfer, the facility shall give to the recipient a final accounting of the recipient's personal funds and a check for any balance on deposit.

(d) The nursing facility shall retain, for three years, receipts for expenditures from a recipient's personal funds, together with the recipient's account record.

(e) Upon sale or other transfer of an ownership interest in a nursing facility or a contract to provide nursing home services in a facility, both the transferor and transferee share joint responsibility in transferring the recipient's personal funds and records in an accurate and orderly manner.

(f) A nursing facility may not charge a Medicaid recipient for items or services if the facility does not charge all non-Medicaid recipients for those same items and services. Charges must be for direct, identifiable services or supplies furnished to an individual recipient. A periodic "flat" rate charge for routine items, including beverages or cigarettes, is not allowed. A nursing facility may only charge for a service after it has provided the service, and for an item after it has delivered it. Charges may not exceed actual cost to the nursing facility.

(g) At a recipient's request, a nursing facility shall hold and safeguard a recipient's nonmonetary personal property. A recipient's personal property must be clearly marked with the recipient's name. The nursing facility shall keep an up-to-date record of personal property separate from the facility's inventory. If items are lost, the circumstances of disappearance shall be documented in the nursing facility's records.

(h) The nursing facility may not charge a recipient for holding, safeguarding, accounting, or managing personal funds or personal property. The cost of accounting and handling must be included in the facility's cost of operation.

(i) The department may withhold payment to a nursing facility if the facility fails to record properly the receipt and disposition of a recipient's personal funds or personal property.

(j) In this section,