Medicaid provisions may allow for the spouse of a nursing home resident, also known as the “community spouse,” to keep one-half of the couple’s combined assets up to a certain maximum limit. The spousal impoverishment methodologies are usually triggered when one spouse enters a nursing facility (or hospital) and is likely to be there for at least 30 days. On the first day of the month the applicant enters the facility, the value of all of the couple's countable resources is calculated, and the community spouse is allowed to keep one-half or more of the resources, subject to a minimum and maximum amount. In most states, once the community spouse’s protected resource amount has been determined, the institutionalized spouse must reduce the remaining resources to below a certain dollar amount within certain timeframes. Cases such as the Blumer decision have altered the landscape of protection afforded community spouses in some instances.