Federal Poverty Level. This is a commonly-used income benchmark used to calculate income eligibility limits for various Federal and State public benefit programs. The FPL is calculated and published by the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services each year. In New York, most Medicaid categories are not based upon the FPL. However, eligibility for many programs is based upon FPL, including the Medicare Savings Programs, Family Health Plus, Child Health Plus, Family Planning Benefit Program, and the Medicaid Buy-In for Working People with Disabilities. FPL is also used as part of determining eligibility for SNAP (aka Food Stamps). After the official FPL is determined by the Federal government, New York State must adopt them separately for use in the various State-administered programs. Updated State program income limits can be found on the
Department of Health website.