Minnesota Health Care Programs

1.4.4 Temporary Absence

Temporary absence refers to circumstances where one or more household members are absent from a household they share with others, but the absent members remain part of the household.

Reasons for the temporary absence include but are not limited to:

School attendance or training
Employment
Illness or hospitalization
Vacation
Job search
Military service
Working in another state
Natural disaster or catastrophe
Personal or family emergency
Visits with a non-custodial parent or other relatives

When temporarily absent for school attendance or training, the student must:

maintain a home in Minnesota (or, for children, have a home maintained by a parent or relative caretaker); and
return home during vacations and school breaks.

The following are some of the circumstances that are not considered a temporary absence:

An absence of less than one calendar month
An absence that is expected to be more than one calendar month and the person does not intend to return to the home, or does not meet a condition for temporary absence
An absence due to incarceration for more than one calendar month

Temporary Absences from the State

A temporary absence includes when a person is absent from the state with the intent to return to the state when the reason for the absence ends. There is no limit for how long a person may be temporarily absent from the state. A person is no longer considered temporarily absent from the state if they receive Medicaid benefits in another state. An applicant or enrollee's eligibility for Minnesota Health Care Programs (MHCP) may not be denied or terminated because of the person's temporary absence from the state.

Legal Citations

Code of Federal Regulations, title 20, section 416.1149

Code of Federal Regulations, title 42, section 435.403

Minnesota Statutes, section 256B.056, subdivision 1

Minnesota Statutes, section 256L.09, subdivision 4