MACPAC

MACPAC Meets

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met last week in Washington, D.C. to discuss a variety of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program issues. MACPAC, the non-partisan legislative branch agency that performs policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress, the administration, and the states, addressed a number of issues during the meeting. Among them it discussed Medicaid managed long-term services and supports (MLTSS) and voted to recommend that states be given the opportunity to seek permission to make Medicaid beneficiary enrollment in managed care plans mandatory through revisions of their state plan amendment rather than by [...]

iqtsupport2018-01-30T06:00:58-05:00January 30, 2018|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid long-term services and supports, Medicaid managed care|

MACPAC Meets

The non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress, the administration, and the states on Medicaid and CHIP-related issues met recently in Washington, D.C. The following is the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission’s own summary of its meeting. The December 2017 meeting of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission began with a brief update on the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Although federal funding for the CHIP expired at the end of September, legislation to renew funding was still pending in Congress. The Commission then heard from a panel discussing state tools to manage drug utilization [...]

iqtsupport2017-12-20T06:00:38-05:00December 20, 2017|Medicaid|

MACPAC Meets

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met recently in Washington, D.C. Among the issues MACPAC commissioners discussed during their two-day meeting were: delivery system reform incentive payment programs Medicaid enrollment and renewal processes managed care oversight monitoring and evaluating section 11115 demonstration waivers Medicaid coverage of telemedicine services MACPAC advises the administration, Congress, and the states on Medicaid and CHIP issues. It is a non-partisan agency of the legislative branch of government. Go here to find background information on these and other subjects as well as links to the presentations that MACPAC staff made to the commissioners during [...]

iqtsupport2017-09-20T06:00:11-04:00September 20, 2017|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, Medicaid regulations|

MACPAC Meets

Last week the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met in Washington, D.C. The agency performs policy and data analysis and offers recommendations to Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the states. During two days of meetings, MACPAC commissioners received the following presentations: Federal CHIP Funding Update: When Will States Exhaust Their Allotments? Review of June Report Chapter: Program Integrity in Medicaid Managed Care Review of June Report Chapter: Medicaid and the Opioid Epidemic Medicare Savings Program: Eligible But Not Enrolled Medicaid Reform: Implications of Proposed Legislation Preliminary Findings From Evaluations of Medicaid Expansions Under Section [...]

iqtsupport2017-05-04T06:00:23-04:00May 4, 2017|Medicaid|

New MACPAC Study Evaluates Medicaid, Medicare Payments

Medicaid payments to hospitals are comparable to or even higher than Medicare payments. Or at least they are once supplemental Medicaid payments are included. So concludes a new study by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises the states, Congress, and the administration on Medicaid and CHIP payment and access issues. In what MACPAC bills as the “first-ever study to construct a state-level payment index to compare fee-for-service inpatient hospital payments across states and to benchmark Medicaid payments to other payers such as Medicare,” the study found that Across states, base Medicaid [...]

iqtsupport2017-04-17T06:00:40-04:00April 17, 2017|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicare|

MACPAC Looks at Medicaid DSH

Hospitals that serve especially large numbers of Medicaid and low-income patients still need Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payments (Medicaid DSH) to avoid red ink despite the expansion of Medicaid and the increase in the number of uninsured people fostered by the Affordable Care Act. So concludes the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) the non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the states on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program issues. In its March 2017 report to Congress, MACPAC writes that In both expansion and non-expansion [...]

iqtsupport2017-03-23T06:00:53-04:00March 23, 2017|Affordable Care Act, hospitals, Medicaid|

MACPAC Looks at High-Cost Hepatitis C Drugs

The emergence of exceptionally high-cost drugs that offer unprecedented benefits for Hepatitis C patients has posed a considerable challenge to state Medicaid programs: the drugs offer cures, not treatment, yet their costs are potentially budget-busting. The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission commissioned a study to evaluate how these new drugs and their cost have affected state Medicaid programs and the managed care organizations that serve most Medicaid beneficiaries. Among the issues the study considered were: state coverage and prior authorization policies the impact of the new drugs on state Medicaid budgets and Medicaid managed care organizations how these [...]

iqtsupport2017-03-10T06:00:07-05:00March 10, 2017|Medicaid|

MACPAC Meets, Discusses Medicaid, CHIP Issues

The non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the states on a variety of Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program issues met last week in Washington, D.C. Among the issues on the agenda of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission were: the flexibility of states in structuring and administering their Medicaid and CHIP programs state Medicaid responses to fiscal pressures studies requested by Congress on mandatory/optional benefits and populations current Medicaid parallels to per capita financing options illustrations of state-level effects of per capita cap design elements high-cost hepatitis [...]

iqtsupport2017-03-08T11:26:27-05:00March 8, 2017|Medicaid|

MACPAC Concerned About Prospect of Medicaid Block Grants

Members of the non-partisan legislative agency that advises Congress on Medicaid and CHIP issues expressed concern at their most recent meeting about the possibility of the federal government turning Medicaid into a block grant program. At their meeting in Washington, D.C. last week, members of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission discussed the steps they would need to take to advise policy-makers about the issues they would need to address in making such a major policy change and the possibility that such a shift would result in a reduction of funding for Medicaid over time. Learn more about [...]

iqtsupport2017-02-02T06:00:53-05:00February 2, 2017|Medicaid|

MACPAC Meets, Discusses Medicaid DSH Issues

Last week the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met in Washington, D.C. to review aspects of its required March report to Congress and to address other Medicaid and CHIP issues. Included on the agenda of the meeting were: a review of chapters of the March report on Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) and monitoring of access to care; alternative approaches to state financing of their Medicaid programs; Medicaid coverage for low-income adults; and Medicaid program integrity issues. See the presentations used to help guide these discussions here, on MACPAC’s web site.

iqtsupport2017-02-01T06:00:51-05:00February 1, 2017|Medicaid|