Full-time student meets 80-hour “qualifying activities” requirement for Pathways Medicaid program

A student had her application for the Medicaid Pathways program denied for failing to have 80 hours of “qualifying activities” a month.  The student appealed, arguing that the rigor and time commitment of her full-time master’s degree program was not accurately reflected by the State agency’s policy of converting 10 credit hours to 40 hours of a “qualifying activity.”  The Court concluded the agency had erred in calculating the hours, emphasizing that the State agency’s Medicaid Manual—which states that a full-time academic workload meets the 80-hours requirement—takes precedence over the credit-hour conversions in the agency’s training manual.