The Employed Individuals with Disabilities (EID) Program:
Medicaid (Medical Assistance) for Workers with Disabilities

The Employed Individuals with Disabilities (EID) Program is Maryland’s most
powerful incentive for people with disabilities to work.
EID rewards people with disabilities for working by qualifying them for
Medicaid (also known as Medical Assistance).
Medicaid covers not only medical services; it also pays for essential
services to help people with disabilities live in the community, and meets
the Medicaid eligibility requirement for DDA’s Medicaid Waiver program.
Medicaid also covers out-of-pocket costs for people on Medicare, which can
save them thousands of dollars per year.

EID counters people’s fear of losing benefits when they work. The program
actually provides an EXTRA benefit (Medicaid) to people with disabilities,
but ONLY if they work for pay.

The State of Maryland made improvements to EID on January 1, 2024,
including eliminating the income limit, not counting a spouse’s resources
(assets), not counting any retirement accounts and allowing people enrolled
in EID to save money in Independence Accounts that don’t count against
the resource limit.

This webinar – appropriate for everyone – provides a basic overview of EID and the
improvements for beginners, and explores deeper details about the new rules for
experienced professionals. Recommended for people with disabilities who are
working or considering work, Benefits Counselors and professionals who provide
employment services.

Facilitator: Michael Dalto

Michael Dalto is a big, old benefits geek. He has delivered presentations on
benefits and work incentives to thousands of people with disabilities, family
members, and professionals since 1989. He created state certification for

Maryland benefits counselors and provided training and technical assistance for
the certification. He oversaw benefits counseling for the PROMISE project, a
research grant that served youths who receive SSI and their families.

Michael also consulted with the Institute for Community Inclusion of the
University of Massachusetts Boston on the SGA Project, a research effort that
tested interventions to support vocational rehabilitation consumers in Kentucky
and Minnesota to work their way off Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
benefits. He has written training materials about benefits and provided
technical assistance to Virginia Commonwealth University’s National Training
and Data Center. He now consults with Cornell University and the National
Association of Blind Merchants.