Medicaid

Michigan’s decision to have Medicaid enrollees with incomes above 100% of the federal poverty level pay premiums for their coverage has led healthier beneficiaries to disenroll from Medicaid at higher rates than they otherwise would, according to a study published in May.

CMS requests $16.3 million for opioid and substance use disorder support services in its fiscal 2022 budget -- a nearly $13 million increase from the 2021 enacted level -- indicating CMS wants to prioritize tackling the substance abuse crisis this year.

Senate Republicans unveiled a $928 billion infrastructure counteroffer Thursday (May 27) that does not include caregiving infrastructure investments, saying they want a bill to stick to so-called physical infrastructure.

Wisconsin’s Republican lawmakers Tuesday (May 25) ended a special session the governor had called to take up Medicaid expansion legislation without discussing the bill, leaving over $1 billion in federal funding on the table.

A group of organizations representing workers, providers of and beneficiaries who use home- and community-based services sent a letter to Congressional leadership Tuesday (May 25) urging them to put HCBS funding in the next legislative package, as Republicans say a bipartisan infrastructure agreement is still far off and other advocates suspect the package will eventually move through reconciliation.

The White House appears to be drawing a sharp line when it comes to including investments in the caregiving economy in a potential infrastructure compromise with Republicans, according to a memo the administration sent Friday (May 21) to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee ranking Republican Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) offering to cut over $500 billion from its initial package.

The Senate is slated to vote Monday (May 24) at 5:30 P.M. on whether to invoke cloture on Chiquita Brooks-LaSure’s confirmation to be the next CMS administrator, the last procedural hurdle before a final vote on the nominee.

Medicaid expansion advocates suspended a recently started campaign to put expansion on the ballot in Mississippi after an unrelated decision by the state’s Supreme Court invalidated future ballot initiatives.

The Texas attorney general filed a lawsuit Friday (May 14) asking a federal district court in Texas to reinstate a 10-year extension of a Texas uncompensated care 1115 waiver approved in the last days of the Trump administration and revoked by the Biden administration’s CMS for allegedly failing to go through the proper notice-and-comment period.