If you took cooking classes for more than two decades but still couldn’t boil water, wouldn’t you reconsider your lesson plan? Using section 1115 demonstrations, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) can grant states waivers of federal Medicaid requirements, if and only if, the waivers enable the states to conduct health coverage experiments […]
It’s been seven months and change since the Biden Administration took office. What it found waiting for it on January 20 was not just a crisis of democracy and a global pandemic and a surge of unaccompanied children at the border, but also a large pile of policy intended to undercut the Administration’s ability to […]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have reopened a 30-day public comment period for Tennessee’s controversial section 1115 waiver, which the Trump Administration approved in January 2021. While the waiver’s radical centerpiece converting the state’s federal Medicaid funding into a block grant has rightfully received the most attention, the waiver would also allow […]
Nearly six months ago, the Biden Administration initiated efforts to withdraw work reporting requirements in the eleven states with approved section 1115 Medicaid waivers. Now, the resolution many have been waiting for is almost entirely complete. On August 10, Ohio, South Carolina, and Utah all received letters from CMS formally withdrawing their work requirement waivers. […]
Extending postpartum coverage continues to be a hot topic in state legislatures, in Congress, and in the Biden Administration. As my colleagues shared in a blog last week, CMS recently approved Section 1115 demonstration waivers in Georgia and Missouri that extend postpartum benefits to at least some pregnant people. While a step forward, the approvals […]
As Say Ahh readers know, there have been bursts of Section 1115 demonstration activity since the start of the year. April was no different, bringing another flurry of actions from CMS. This time, however, there were some new demonstration approvals that promote coverage, albeit in a more limited way than we would have liked to […]
