Category Archives: Budgets

On January 30, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its long awaited and highly anticipated State Medicaid Director Letter (SMD Letter) announcing the “Healthy Adult Opportunity” (HAO) initiative that will allow states to carry out demonstrations to implement either an aggregate or per-capita cap financing model for certain Medicaid populations.  We’ve previously previewed and highlighted some of the key expectations for this long-awaited guidance.… More

Earlier this year, we wrote about a lawsuit involving the 340B drug pricing program.  We sometimes write about the 340B program because  it is integrally linked to the Medicaid prescription drug rebate program.  So today, we wanted to call attention to a proposed regulation issued by the Massachusetts Medicaid program (which is called “MassHealth”) that shows that link clearly.

Section 1927 of the Social Security Act requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide a rebate to state Medicaid plans if they want to have their drugs covered by Medicaid. … More

Earlier this week, CMS released for publication a proposed rule that would add some degree of transparency and oversight to the somewhat opaque world of Medicaid financing.  It’s a topic that’s fascinated us here at the Medicaid and the Law Blog for some time and we’ve written about it on a couple of occasions.  Over the years, Congress and CMS (and even before there was a CMS,… More

If our readers have been paying attention to the news, one thing is apparent: drug pricing is trending.  As we’ve written on here before, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has proposed significant revisions to the discount safe harbor regulations that protect existing rebate arrangements under Medicare Part D and Medicaid Managed Care. … More

The United States Supreme Court will have the opportunity to hear an important case out of Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affecting how states pay community health centers for Medicaid beneficiaries enrolled in a managed care plan.  Community health centers represent the largest primary health care safety net for the nation’s poorest urban and rural communities.

The plaintiff in the case, Legacy Community Health Services,… More

This is a brief post about a CMS proposed rule that sort of slipped under the radar last week.  But it has the potential to raise some eyebrows because it is clearly designed to make it harder for labor unions to collect dues from some home health care workers who are paid directly by Medicaid.

Section 1902(a)(32) of the Social Security Act prohibits reassignment of Medicaid funds, and only allows Medicaid funds to be paid directly to individuals performing health care services,… More

In the past several months, we have highlighted some fascinating Medicaid litigation against CMS in several US District Courts across the country.  This litigation deals with the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) requirements of section 1923 of the Social Security Act.  But what we haven’t focused on – until now – is how the DSH program fits into the overall Medicaid financing system.  It’s a topic of enormous complexity with a rich 35-or more year history. … More

Good morning from snowy Baltimore! Myself, along with my colleagues Tom Barker, Sean Ahern, and Erik Schulwolf are excited to be here here at AHLA’s Institute on Medicare and Medicaid Payment Issuers. Over the next few days we plan on blogging about our insight, key sessions, and other fun tidbits and developments as we take in all of the great information at this annual gathering of the health bar.… More

On January 30, 2017, President Trump signed an executive order (“EO”) that has generated considerable confusion in the administrative law space, and has produced at least one lawsuit thus far.  The EO requires that for every new regulation issued by an executive agency, two regulations must be identified for elimination (“repeal”).  This requirement is coupled with another provision that imposes an immediate cap on net costs imposed by new regulations (“offsets”). … More

Introduction

Over the course of the last several blog posts, we’ve discussed how the Medicaid program could potentially be transformed under the incoming Trump Administration.  We also described the central role that state-led demonstration waivers would play in defining the parameters of this transformation.  Now, the association for State Medicaid directors is weighing in on precisely this issue.  The National Association of State Medicaid Directors (NAMD)recently published a document laying out the group’s priorities for the Medicaid program in the first 100 days of the incoming Trump Administration. … More

Currently, nearly 10 million Americans are dually-eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. These “dual eligibles” are low-income seniors and individuals with disabilities who are separately eligible for and receive coverage under both the Medicare and Medicaid programs.  In general, Medicare acts as the primary payer for dual-eligibles, while Medicaid provides “wrap-around” coverage for these individuals, helping with some out-of-pocket costs (such as premiums, copayments and deductibles) and offering coverage for services not otherwise covered by Medicare (vision,… More

Introduction

The nomination of Seema Verma by President-Elect Trump for the position of CMS Administrator sends a clear signal that the Trump Administration considers Medicaid one of its top healthcare reform priorities.  Seema Verma is the the “architect” of the Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0” waiver (HIP 2.0), a consumer-driven Medicaid expansion demonstration approved by the Obama Administration under a Section 1115 waiver.  Most recently, Verma was also involved in designing Kentucky’s proposed “Kentucky HEALTH” (“HEALTH”) Section 1115 waiver,… More

Last week, we wrote about the importance of the Medicaid program, especially given its size as, by far, the largest health insurance plan in the United States.  We noted that Medicaid covers 71 million people (this number increased dramatically after the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010).  We said that “Medicaid is important for all of us” – whether you are a program beneficiary, a taxpayer who helps pay for it,… More

Dear readers: this post is going to be a bit different from our regular posts, in that we are going to try to refrain from getting too far in the weeds, and avoid too much legalese. Why? Because the results of the November election will likely have major implications not only for the Medicaid program itself, but for the millions of individuals it serves. We are fortunate to have a platform here and it is our hope that,… More

Sometimes news is so interesting you need a night to ponder on it. Yesterday’s announcement that Indiana reached an agreement with CMS to expand its Medicaid program to the ACA-levels (138% of the Federal Poverty Level) was a big surprise and carries with it some very real, long-term implications.  The Indiana model creates two new Medicaid pools: Health Indiana Plan (HIP) Basic and HIP Plus.  HIP basic will be made only available to individuals making less than the federal poverty level and includes coverage of all essential health benefits,… More

[Updated at 1:12 p.m.]

Hello dear readers. For those of you just joining us, this is a very new blog and we are still exploring different content options. Today we are going to try out a new feature, “What’s New in Medicaid Today.” We can’t promise yet that you will see this daily, but if you do find it helpful, comment, and you may just convince us to make this a regular routine.… More