Medicaid

Coronavirus Update: March 31, 2020

Coronavirus Update: March 31, 2020 Yesterday the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a major update of Medicare and Medicaid regulations that included blanket waivers of a large number of Medicare and Medicaid regulations and requirements. The following is a summary of the major aspects of this new regulation. New Policies and Waivers From Medicare and Medicaid Regulations and Requirements CMS has introduced dozens of changes that involve waivers from current regulations and requirements. A comprehensive, 26-page CMS document describing these changes can be found here and below are the highlights organized into four broad categories: increasing [...]

iqtsupport2020-03-31T20:24:34-04:00March 31, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19, Medicaid, Medicaid regulations, Medicare, Medicare regulations, Telehealth|

CMS Posts COVID-19 FAQ for State Medicaid and CHIP Agencies

State Medicaid agencies and CHIP programs have received new guidance on the federal resources available to them to fight the COVID-19 national health emergency through a new FAQ published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week. Among the issues addressed in the FAQ are eligibility, enrollment, benefits, cost sharing, workforce issues, telehealth, and more. Health care providers may find this information useful when serving their patients. See CMS’s news release describing the FAQ here and the FAQ itself here.

iqtsupport2020-03-16T06:00:32-04:00March 16, 2020|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid|

Block Grants Could Hurt Medicaid, Study Finds

A switch to block grants to fund state Medicaid programs “…would require states to cut coverage, reduce benefits, increase cost-sharing, lower provider payment rates, or otherwise reduce Medicaid expenditures as compared to current law spending levels” according to a new Commonwealth Fund study. The study, conducted in the wake of the Trump administration’s new guidance on how states can transform their Medicaid programs into block grants and its encouragement that they do so, suggests that such efforts could result in considerable harm to Medicaid beneficiaries, providers of Medicaid-covered services, and state government finances. Meanwhile, the federal government’s share of state [...]

iqtsupport2020-03-11T11:34:50-04:00March 11, 2020|Medicaid|

MACPAC Meets

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met for two days last week in Washington, D.C. The following is MACPAC’s own summary of the sessions. The February 2020 MACPAC meeting opened with a continuation of MACPAC’s examination of Medicaid’s role in maternal health, when Medicaid officials from Michigan, New Jersey, and North Carolina joined the Commission to discuss how their states are addressing maternal morbidity and mortality.* The Commission plans to include a chapter on maternal health in its June 2020 report to Congress. Commissioners later turned their attention to policy options for improving enrollment in the Medicare Savings Program. [...]

iqtsupport2020-03-06T06:00:04-05:00March 6, 2020|hospitals, Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, Medicaid regulations, Medicare|

MFAR Backlash Continues

Diverse health care and government interests are rallying around their opposition to the proposed Medicaid fiscal accountability rule. The regulation, proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in November, would impose new limits on the ability of states to finance their share of their Medicaid spending, potentially jeopardizing provider payments and the ability of high-volume Medicaid providers to operate without suffering great losses. In all, CMS received more than 4200 written comments in response to the proposed regulation, most of them expressing opposition. Among those doing so were state governments, the National Governors Association, hospitals and hospital associations, [...]

iqtsupport2020-03-02T06:00:22-05:00March 2, 2020|Medicaid, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid regulations|

Azar: Budget Proposes Reducing Medicaid Matching $

The federal government would reduce its financial commitment to state Medicaid programs under the FY 2021 budget the Trump administration proposed earlier this month. While testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar acknowledged that the administration’s proposed FY 2021 would eliminate the enhanced rate at which the federal government matches state funds used to serve individuals who enrolled in Medicaid through the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion provision. That enhanced rate calls for the federal government to pay 100 percent of the costs associated with [...]

iqtsupport2020-02-28T09:33:40-05:00February 28, 2020|Affordable Care Act, Medicaid|

A Tax on Businesses With Workers on Medicaid?

Businesses with more than 50 employees enrolled in Medicaid would pay a fee, or tax, under a proposal by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. Murphy’s “corporate responsibility fee” would levy a tax of $325 per employee on companies with between 50 and 500 employees on Medicaid. The companies would pay the same fee for the members of their employees’ families who are enrolled in Medicaid as well. Companies with more than 500 workers on Medicaid would pay a higher fee and the tax would rise to $725 per employee for businesses with more than 1000 employees on Medicaid. The proposal [...]

iqtsupport2020-02-26T06:00:52-05:00February 26, 2020|Medicaid|

Supreme Court Paves Way for Public Charge Regulation

The revised public charge regulation that will make it more difficult for some immigrants to come to the U.S. will be implemented after the Supreme Court lifted preliminary injunctions issued by lower courts that delayed the regulation’s implementation. Under revisions of the public charge regulation introduced last year, individuals seeking entry into the U.S. and green cards who do not appear to be financially independent or have employment commitments can be denied entry if they will be dependent on means-tested public aid programs such as Medicaid or food stamps or even if they, or members of their family, appear likely [...]

iqtsupport2020-02-24T10:38:18-05:00February 24, 2020|hospitals, Medicaid|

Fitch: Medicaid Block Grants, MFAR Threaten States, Providers

Medicaid block grants and the proposed Medicaid fiscal accountability regulation (MFAR) pose new financial threats to providers and states, according to Fitch Ratings, the financial rating company. MFAR poses the greater threat, Fitch believes, noting in a new analysis that it could …reduce total Medicaid spending nationally by $37 billion and $44 billion annually…and by $23 billion to $30 billion for hospitals alone. States, and to some extent providers, would respond to MFAR’s implementation with measures to mitigate the negative fiscal implications. Block grants, through what has been named the Healthy Adult Opportunity program, also pose a threat, with Fitch [...]

iqtsupport2020-02-18T13:28:21-05:00February 18, 2020|hospitals, Medicaid, Medicaid regulations|

Verma Responds to Medicaid Block Grant Critics

Last week the Trump administration unveiled its Healthy Adult Opportunity program, a new, optional, already-controversial approach to structuring state Medicaid programs. Ever since, the program – essentially, Medicaid block grants – has been the subject of criticism from many public officials and health care stakeholders. Now, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma, who oversaw the development of Healthy Adult Opportunity, has responded to the program’s critics in an op-ed piece published in the Washington Post. See her commentary “No, the Trump administration is not cutting Medicaid.”

iqtsupport2020-02-11T11:55:58-05:00February 11, 2020|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid|