Medical Assistance for Children Receiving Northstar Kinship Assistance
2.5.6.2 Medical Assistance for Children Receiving Northstar Kinship Assistance (MA-NKA)
Children who receive Northstar Kinship Assistance are eligible for Medical Assistance (MA-NKA) without a health care application or financial eligibility requirements. This includes children who receive Title IV-E or non-IV-E NKA
Northstar Kinship Assistance is a benefit program that supports eligible children in foster care who find permanency with a relative through a transfer of permanent legal and physical custody (TPLPC). A TPLPC to a relative custodian provides a child in out-of-home care with a permanent home when efforts to reunite the child with his or her family have been unsuccessful and permanency through adoption is either not possible or not appropriate.
In addition to receiving MA-NKA without an application or financial eligibility requirements, the child receives other benefits under the NKA benefit agreement, including monthly payments and reimbursement for nonrecurring expenses associated with finalizing a TPLPC.
NKA replaced Relative Custody Assistance (RCA), on January 1, 2015. NKA will gradually replace RCA as children age out. Children who receive RCA do not qualify for MA-NKA but may qualify for MA under another basis of eligibility, such as child or disabled basis.
This chapter includes the following policies that apply to MA-NKA.
MA-NAA, MA-NKA, and MA-FC Title IV-E and Medicare
MA Referral for Other Benefits
Legal Citations
Code of Federal Regulations, title 42, section 435.145
Minnesota Statutes, section 256B.055
Minnesota Statutes, Chapter 256N