Financing

Financing

House HEROES Act Would Also Further Raise CHIP Matching Rate

The temporary 6.2 percentage point increase in the federal Medicaid matching rate enacted as part of the Families First COVID-19 legislation (P.L. 116-127) benefited the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) as well.  Because the formula used to calculate each state’s CHIP matching rate is based on the regular FMAP, the Families First FMAP increase resulted […]

CMS Should Withdraw Medicaid State Financing and Supplemental Payment Rule That Undercuts COVID-19 Relief Bill’s Enhanced Federal Medicaid Match

[Editor’s Note: On March 18, 2020 the Senate passed and the President signed into law the bipartisan Families First Coronavirus Response Act (H.R. 6201) after this blog was published.] Today (March 18, 2020), the Senate is expected to pass the House-passed coronavirus relief bill (H.R. 6201) and send it to the President’s desk.  The bill […]

Medicaid and COVID-19

One of Medicaid’s many strengths is its ability to help states respond to public health epidemics. Through Medicaid, federal funds are available on an open-ended basis to match state costs of immunizing, testing, diagnosing, and treating over 71 million low-income Americans in the event of an outbreak of an infectious disease. Which is a good […]

Responding to Trump Administration’s Troubling Medicaid Financing and Supplemental Payment Rule

On November 18, 2019, the Trump Administration issued a proposed Medicaid “Fiscal Accountability” rule that seriously threatens to upend state budgets and reduce beneficiaries’ access to needed care.  The proposed rule, if finalized, could thus harm Medicaid beneficiaries, including children and families, as well as their health care providers, in most states. As Cindy Mann […]

New Study Finds Medicaid Per Capita Caps and Block Grants Would Lead to Deep Cuts to Children’s Coverage and Access

Avalere Health issued a new study conducted for the Children’s Hospital Association, estimating how much a per capita cap or block grant could significantly cut federal Medicaid spending on children nationally and on a state-by-state basis, relative to current law.  The study models the impact of four illustrative per capita caps and block grants.  It […]

House Committee Advances Bill to Sustain Medicaid Programs in the Territories and Avoid Deep, Harmful Cuts

On July 11, by voice vote, the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee reported out essential legislation (H.R. 3631) to avert large federal Medicaid funding shortfalls the territories will face starting in 2020.  Without additional federal funding the bill would provide, the territories would have no choice but to institute damaging cuts […]