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Minnesota Health Care Programs

1.4.4 Temporary Absence (Archive)

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. A temporary absence occurs when a person, after living in a permanent living arrangement for at least one full calendar month, leaves the living arrangement but intends to, and does, return to the permanent living arrangement either in that same calendar month in which the person leaves, or in the next month.

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. People are temporarily absent from Minnesota if they left the state for a temporary purpose and intend to return when the reason for their temporary absence ends. To be considered temporarily absent a person must have a definitive place to return to in Minnesota.

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

  • A person enters a long-term care facility (LTCF) and is expected to be absent for more than 30 consecutive days

  • Another state has determined the person is a resident of that state for any reason

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

Published:  June 1, 2016

Archived:  December 22, 2016