Blog

Texas Receives 1115 Waiver Renewal

This week, our In Focus section reviews Texas’ 1115 Medicaid waiver renewal. After more than a year of negotiations, on December 21st the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) received CMS approval to extend the state’s 1115 waiver.[1] The Texas Healthcare Transformation and Quality Improvement Program waiver was initially approved by CMS as a five-year demonstration waiver that began December 2011 and ended September 2016 and included $29 billion in funding.  The waiver authorized the expansion of Medicaid managed care while preserving federal hospital funding historically received as supplemental payments. The waiver created two new funding pools:  the Uncompensated Care (UC) payment pool and the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) pool.

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Kentucky Becomes First State to Enact Community Engagement & Employment Requirements for Medicaid Members

This article was written by Senior Consultants Amanda Schipp and Lora Saunders of HMA Medicaid Market Solutions (HMA MMS). HMA MMS helped the Commonwealth of Kentucky secure a groundbreaking Medicaid Section 1115 Waiver. Below is a summary of what the waiver entails.

On January 12, 2018, Kentucky’s section 1115 Medicaid Demonstration Waiver was approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The demonstration includes two significant components: an expansion of substance use disorder (SUD) services, including a waiver of the Institution for Mental Disease (IMD) exclusion, and the creation of a new Medicaid program for able-bodied adults, known as Kentucky HEALTH (Helping to Engage and Achieve Long Term Health). The demonstration contains several groundbreaking policies never previously approved by CMS, most notably, a requirement for non-exempt Medicaid enrollees to work or participate in approved work-related activities, such as education, training, or volunteering as a condition of Medicaid eligibility. This approval paves the way for the nine other states that also have pending waivers requesting similar work requirements.[1]

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CMS approves Kentucky Medicaid Waiver

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved the “Kentucky Helping to Engage and Achieve Long Term Health” 1115 Medicaid Waiver, a five-year waiver that includes a “community engagement” or work requirement as a condition of eligibility for non-disabled adult Medicaid beneficiaries ages 19-64.

The decision from CMS represents the first approval of a Medicaid waiver that includes a work requirement as a condition of eligibility. Kentucky developed the waiver in collaboration with HMA Medicaid Market Solutions (HMA MMS).

Kentucky defines “community engagement activities” as 80 hours per month of employment, education, job skills training, and community service. Exempted groups include pregnant women, the medically frail, and full-time students. The waiver also includes “consumer-driven tools” that provide incentives for healthy behavior.

Come back to the HMA blog Monday to read more about Kentucky HEALTH.

Read the full text of the press release issued by the Kentucky Governor’s Office here.

Read the Kentucky HEALTH Demonstration Approval here.

Medicaid Managed Care Enrollment Update – Q4 2017

This week, our In Focus section reviews recent Medicaid enrollment trends in capitated, risk-based managed care in 27 states.[1] Many state Medicaid agencies post monthly enrollment figures by health plan for their Medicaid managed care population to their websites. This data allows for the timeliest analysis of enrollment trends across states and managed care organizations. Nearly all 27 states highlighted in this review have released monthly Medicaid managed care enrollment data into the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2017. This report reflects the most recent data posted. HMA has made the following observations related to the enrollment data shown on Table 1 (below):

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