Tag Archives: congress

Here at the Medicaid and the Law Blog, we spent part of our holiday break reading through the most recent COVID-19 relief package that was finally signed into law by President Trump amid a not-insignificant amount of drama.  It was quite an undertaking; the new law is over 5,000 double-spaced pages.  While much of the legislation is related specifically or more generally to COVID-19 and economic recovery,… More

The global pandemic caused by the novel corona virus has certainly shaken up our normal way of life and will do so for the foreseeable future.  Times like this reinforce the importance of public health insurance programs like Medicare and Medicaid.  Our post today addresses many of the ways that CMS and Congress are bolstering the Medicaid program to respond to the unique challenges posed by the pandemic.  We’ve updated this post to reflect the fact that,… More

On June 19, the House of Representatives passed the funding bill for the Department of Health and Human Services for fiscal year 2020.  CMS is funded in this annual legislation and this funding bill is often a vehicle for Congress to express its support or displeasure for some of CMS’s activities during the year.

This year’s bill is no different.  Section 239 of the legislation (H.R.… More

We have written in the past about the strange quirk in Medicaid law that prohibits Medicaid from paying for medical services for individuals who are patients in an “institution for mental disease” – a facility that has more than 16 beds and that is “primarily engaged” in providing diagnosis, treatment and care to individuals with mental illness.  This prohibition – commonly known as the “IMD Exclusion” – is a vestige of the original Medicaid program,… More