Arizona Medicaid Long-Term Care

Last updated: August 21, 2026 Jurisdiction: Arizona

ALTCS is Arizona’s long-term-care Medicaid program

Arizona calls its long-term-care Medicaid program the Arizona Long Term Care System, or ALTCS. AHCCCS describes ALTCS as health insurance for people with an age-related, physical, or intellectual/developmental disability who require nursing-facility level of care; the same program can furnish services in an institution or in a home or community setting (AHCCCS ALTCS overview). AHCCCS, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, publishes the eligibility and medical-assessment policies used for the program (AHCCCS ALTCS policy).

ALTCS is not limited to a nursing-home admission. AHCCCS states that many ALTCS members live in their own homes or in assisted living facilities while receiving in-home services, which is why a family considering care at home should not assume that institutional placement is a prerequisite (AHCCCS ALTCS overview). The person still must satisfy both the financial rules and the medical-level-of-care rules; the care setting changes the service package and share-of-cost analysis, not the need for a real eligibility determination (AHCCCS ALTCS policy).

Medical eligibility is determined through PAS

For ALTCS institutional or home and community-based services, AHCCCS policy requires a nonpsychiatric medical condition or developmental disability that necessitates nursing-facility or intermediate-care-facility level of care. AHCCCS determines that need through its pre-admission screening, or PAS, assessment (AHCCCS PAS general provisions).

A PAS assessor is a registered nurse or social worker. The policy says the assessment may be completed face-to-face, by telephone, or virtually, with reasonable efforts to obtain medical records and with information from the applicant, guardian, caregiver, or another person familiar with the applicant’s condition (AHCCCS PAS general provisions). AHCCCS then calculates a PAS score and compares it with the applicable threshold for elderly/physically disabled or developmentally disabled applicants; the threshold represents immediate risk of institutionalization unless physician-consultant review determines otherwise (AHCCCS PAS general provisions).

Arizona takeaway: ALTCS can pay for nursing-facility and community-based long-term services, but both the financial application and the PAS medical determination matter. A care need alone is not an ALTCS approval, and an asset or income plan alone does not replace PAS (AHCCCS ALTCS overview; AHCCCS PAS policy).

Start with the current application facts

Because ALTCS is sensitive to medical status, resources, income, living arrangement, transfers, and marital status, a useful application file includes current bank and investment records, income proofs, deeds and loan statements, trust documents, and records of significant transfers. AHCCCS policy treats resource eligibility as a month-by-month determination and uses the equity value of a resource unless a specific exception applies (AHCCCS resource policy).

The next pages address the financial rules, five-year transfer review, beneficiary deed, recovery, nursing-facility budgeting, home care, planning, veterans benefits, and insurance. For a general comparison, see Medicaid (Baseline). Families should seek Arizona-specific legal and benefits advice before changing ownership, creating a trust, or applying.

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ALTCS is Arizona’s long-term-care Medicaid program

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