As part of the CARES Act, states have the option to provide an additional $600/week federal pandemic unemployment compensation (FPUC) through July 31, 2020. Minnesota started implementing this additional compensation with the week of March 29, 2020. 

Earlier this week, the Minnesota Department of Human Services released a new bulletin (#20-21-05) that explains the treatment of FPUC payments for Minnesota Health Care Programs. Please refer to the bulletin for details on how the additional income is counted for Medical Assistance (MA) and MinnesotaCare.

For private plans (QHPs), FPUC payments are counted when determining eligibility for advanced premium tax credits (APTC) and cost sharing reductions (CSR) for applicants and for currently eligible consumers. 

MNsure is able to accept reports of the $600/week FPUC unemployment income if the consumer has an application with only QHP eligibility. If the application is a mixed household or strictly a MA or MinnesotaCare case, MNsure is unable to make these changes. Assisters should contact MinnesotaCare or the consumer’s county of residence for guidance on how to report this income. 

When submitting a new application, consumers receiving $600/week FPUC payments should not be entered in the current income section of the application. Instead, the FPUC payments should be reported on the “Annual Income” page as part of the projected annual income (PAI) at the end of the “Household Income” section of the application.