Interesting events have kept Medicaid waiver watchers very busy in the last week. On Friday April 27th final regulations creating new requirements for state and federal public process to allow for public input when Medicaid waivers are developed and considered went into effect. A summary I did with Samantha Artiga at Kaiser Commission on Medicaid of the new rules is available.

Last week, Say Ahhh! reported that three states rushed to submit their waivers right before the rule went into effect, in order to avoid these new requirements on public input. This week we learned that it was actually five states: Kansas, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio and Florida (amendment).

Also on Friday, CMS released a “State Medicaid Director” letter to provide further guidance on the implementation of the revised review and approval process. And CMS debuted a new user guide and website with a comprehensive list of all waivers by state and their statuses. All pending waivers are currently open for a 30-day informal federal comment period. Spread the word to all waiver watchers and we will share more information on this next week…