(a) The Department of Social Services shall seek appropriate amendments to its Medicaid regulations and state plan to allow protection of resources and income pursuant to § 17b-252. Such protection shall be provided, to the extent approved by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, for any purchaser of a precertified long-term care policy and shall last for the life of the purchaser. Such protection shall be provided under the Medicaid program or its successor program. Any purchaser of a precertified long-term care policy shall be guaranteed coverage under the Medicaid program or its successor program, to the extent the individual meets all applicable eligibility requirements for the Medicaid program or its successor program. Until such time as eligibility requirements are prescribed for Medicaid’s successor program, for the purposes of this subsection, the applicable eligibility requirements shall be the Medicaid program’s requirements as of the date its successor program was enacted. The Department of Social Services shall count insurance benefit payments toward resource exclusion to the extent such payments (1) are for services paid for by a precertified long-term care policy; (2) are for the lower of the actual charge and the amount paid by the insurance company; (3) are for nursing home care, or formal services delivered to insureds in the community as part of a care plan approved by an access agency approved by the Office of Policy and Management and the Department of Social Services as meeting the requirements for such agency as defined in regulations adopted pursuant to subsection (e) of § 17b-342; and (4) are for services provided after the individual meets the coverage requirements for long-term care benefits established by the Department of Social Services for this program. The Commissioner of Social Services shall adopt regulations, in accordance with chapter 54, to implement the provisions of this subsection and sections 17b-252, 17b-254 and 38a-475 relating to determining eligibility of applicants for Medicaid, or its successor program, and the coverage requirements for long-term care benefits.

(b) The Commissioner of Social Services, after consultation with the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, may enter into reciprocal agreements with other states to extend the resource exclusions under § 17b-252 and subsection (a) of this section to purchasers of qualified long-term care insurance policies issued in states entering into such reciprocal agreements if such purchasers apply to the Medicaid program or its successor program. Such reciprocal agreements shall also allow purchasers of precertified policies under § 38a-475 to receive a Medicaid resource exclusion in states entering into such reciprocal agreements. The provisions of such reciprocal agreements shall be effective for the life of a purchaser of a precertified policy. For the purposes of this subsection, “qualified long-term care insurance policy” means a long-term care insurance policy approved through a program in another state that provides a Medicaid resource exclusion or asset disregard substantially similar to the Medicaid resource exclusion included in precertified policies and includes benefits substantially similar to those included in a precertified policy.