CMS administrator Seema Verma addresses criticism of her agency’s proposed Medicaid fiscal accountability regulation in a new commentary on the CMS blog.

Critics of the so-called MFAR regulation have argued that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposed regulation, if adopted, will lead to a reduction of federal funding for state Medicaid programs, jeopardize access to care and the financial health of providers by leading to a reduction of supplemental payments to high-volume Medicaid providers, and possibly even force some states to raise taxes to compensate for the loss of federal funding.

In her commentary Verma rebuts these criticisms, maintaining that the proposed regulation seeks to ensure that states pay their fair share of their Medicaid partnership with the federal government, raise that share in a manner consistent with federal guidelines, and spend it in ways that fall within regulatory standards.  She also maintains that the regulation will foster greater transparency and accountability for the Medicaid program.

Verma notes that more than 4000 stakeholders submitted written comments in response to the proposed regulation.  SNAP was among those commenters, writing that MFAR would give too much authority to federal regulators; create new administrative burdens for hospitals and state governments; and inappropriately limit state financing of their share of Medicaid spending.

Learn more from the Verma CMS blog commentary “Medicaid Fiscal Integrity: Protecting Taxpayers and Patients” and from SNAP’s letter in response to the proposed regulation.