Amongst other ways in which life has dramatically changed in the last month, Section 1115 Medicaid waiver terrain has experienced a tectonic shift. For those of us who have been responding to massive numbers of public comment periods over the past two-plus years, only one waiver opened for public comment that we are commenting on […]
Introduction Section 1135 of the Social Security Act allows the Health and Human Services Secretary to waive or modify certain Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP requirements during a national emergency. The purpose of this authority is to ensure that during an emergency sufficient health care services are available to Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP `beneficiaries. As of March 13, […]
Indiana’s Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) demonstration, which has been approved in its current form since January 2015, has its extension application up for federal comment. If approved as is, the demonstration would be allowed to continue ten for years! The current HIP demonstration includes work requirements, a tiered benefit structure based on payment of monthly […]
Florida’s legislature is at it again, despite a recent strong Appeals Court ruling that Medicaid work requirements are not permitted by the statute. A bill to impose the harshest Medicaid work reporting requirements in the country on very poor parents – mostly women – is moving through Florida’s House of Representatives. An identical bill passed […]
Section 1115 Medicaid waivers have been the tool of choice for the Trump Administration and CMS Administrator Verma’s efforts to mold Medicaid to their wishes since Congress failed to do so in 2017. Unfortunately, their wishes include allowing states to erect barriers to coverage (such as work requirements, raising costs for beneficiaries) and a recent […]
In a decision which warmed my heart on a cold Valentine’s Day here in Washington, the federal Court of Appeals issued an unanimous opinion striking down the Arkansas work requirements waiver. In doing so, it upheld district court Judge Boasberg’s decision vacating the Arkansas’ Section 1115 waiver (including most famously Medicaid work requirements) because it […]
