So I just skimmed through the Arkansas Section 1115 Medicaid waiver application,which was submitted to the federal government a few days ago. This proposal is unique and uses Medicaid funding to buy coverage in the new marketplace through a premium assistance arrangement. I AM happy that Arkansas legislators and the Governor were sensible enough to […]
The latest GAO analysis of Medicaid Section 1115 waivers finds that the federal government does not always have a consistent policy of ensuring that the waivers are “budget neutral” to the federal government. GAO took a look at 10 Medicaid waivers approved in recent years to see whether there was a consistent policy that ensured […]
As my diligent colleague Tricia Brooks reported, CMS issued an important final rule on July 5th that we have been expecting for some time. While the rule did not finalize a number of issues, it did include slightly revised rules for states interested in pursuing premium assistance in the individual market – sort of a hot […]
So it may seem like this already happened but today CMS issued the final documents approving Florida’s request to move almost its entire Medicaid program into managed care. The state needed demonstration waiver approval for some (e.g. children on SSI, in foster care, dual-eligibles, etc) but not all of the populations it is seeking to move into […]
A group of influential national organizations, including Georgetown CCF, submitted a letter today to Secretary Sebelius expressing concerns about some features of the pending Section 1115 Medicaid Demonstration request from the state of Indiana. The letter is available here. The Section 1115 waiver request focuses on using Healthy Indiana as a vehicle for the state’s […]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued questions and answers today which, among other things, clarified that Section 1115 waiver requests that include enrollment caps or similar policies would not be approved going forward. CMS notes that such policies do not “further the objectives of the program.” Background note here, Section 1115 Secretarial […]
