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Program
Policy Notice No. 04-02
Revised Poverty Guidelines - effective
April 13, 2004
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Linked from
this page are the revised
Poverty Guidelines issued on February 13, 2004, by the Department
of Health and Human Services. These guidelines replace the Poverty
Guidelines last published on February 7, 2003. Effective April 13,
2004, they are to be used in making determinations of eligibility
for uncompensated services. Facilities certified under one of the
uncompensated services compliance alternatives are not required
to use these guidelines, although they are permitted to do so.
Facilities located
in Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam, the
Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia,
the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Palau are
to use the poverty guidelines for the "48 Contiguous States
and the District of Columbia."
The guidelines
no longer include a definition of "income;" however, Hill-Burton
facilities are required to use the statistical definition
of income previously provided in the guidelines.
Although the
guidelines provide a statistical definition of "family,"
the Hill-Burton program allows facilities the option of using the
definition of family provided in the guidelines or adopting their
own definition, as they were permitted to do in earlier years. However,
the definition chosen must be used consistently in determining eligibility
for uncompensated services. To avoid misunderstandings, we recommend
that facilities formally establish their definition in writing in
their operating procedures manual.
If the definition
of family provided in the attachment is used, it must be interpreted
to include college students as follows: Students, regardless of
their residence, who are supported by their parents or others related
by birth, marriage, or adoption are considered to be residing with
those who support them.
Definition
of "Income" to be Used by Hill-Burton Facilities
For purposes of determining financial eligibility under the Hill-Burton
uncompensated services program, income includes total annual cash
receipts before taxes from all sources, with the exceptions noted
below. Income includes:
- money wages
and salaries before any deductions;
- net receipts
from nonfarm self-employment (receipts from a person's own unincorporated
business, professional enterprise, or partnership, after deductions
for business expenses);
- net receipts
from farm self-employment (receipts from a farm which one operates
as an owner, renter, or sharecropper, after deductions for farm
operating expenses);
- regular payments
from social security, railroad retirement, unemployment compensation,
strike benefits from union funds, workers' compensation, veterans'
payments, public assistance (including Aid to Families with Dependent
Children or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Supplemental
Security Income, and non-Federally-funded General Assistance or
General Relief money payments), and training stipends;
- alimony,
child support, and military family allotments or other regular
support from an absent family member or someone not living in
the household;
- private pensions,
government employee pensions (including military retirement pay),
and regular insurance or annuity payments;
- college or
university scholarships, grants, fellowships, and assistantships;
and
- dividends,
interest, net rental income, net royalties, periodic receipts
from estates or trusts, and net gambling or lottery winnings.
For official
statistical purposes, income does not include the
following types of money received:
- Capital gains;
- any assets
drawn down as withdrawals from a bank, the sale of property, a
house, or a car; or
- tax refunds,
gifts, loans, lump-sum inheritances, one-time insurance payments,
or compensation for injury. Also excluded are
- noncash benefits,
such as the employer-paid or union-paid portion of health insurance
or other employee fringe benefits,
- food or housing
received in lieu of wages,
- the value
of food and fuel produced and consumed on farms,
- the imputed
value of rent from owner-occupied nonfarm or farm housing, and
- such Federal
noncash benefit programs as Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, school
lunches, and housing assistance.
For further
information, you may contact the Division of Facilities Compliance
and Recovery, Special Programs Bureau, Health Resources and Services
Administration, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 16C-17,
Rockville, Maryland 20857; telephone 301-443-5656.
A. Michelle
Snyder
Associate Administrator
Special Programs
Bureau
Health Resources and Services Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
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