The administration’s proposed Medicaid fiscal accountability regulation and its guidance encouraging states to implement Medicaid block grants have incurred widespread opposition among a variety of health care groups.

The Medicaid fiscal accountability regulation would, if adopted, impose new restrictions on how states raise their share of their Medicaid spending, potentially limiting state participation in Medicaid or necessitating tax increases to fill the funding gap if long-accepted financing tools are no longer available to them.

Bookshelf with law booksThe Medicaid block grant guidance offers states a blueprint for curtailing their Medicaid costs by imposing limits on that spending that they negotiate with the federal government.

Numerous health care groups have expressed reservations or direct opposition to one or both of the proposals.  Among them:

  • AARP
  • America’s Essential Hospitals
  • America’s Health Insurance Plans
  • American College of Emergency Physicians
  • American Health Care Association
  • American Hospital Association
  • American Medical Association
  • Association for Community Affiliated Plans
  • Association of American Medical Colleges
  • Coalition of Long-Term Acute-Care Hospitals
  • LeadingAge
  • National Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals
  • National Association of State Budget Officers
  • National Association of Medicaid Directors
  • National Continuing Care Residents Association
  • National Governors Association
  • Private Essential Access Community Hospitals

Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania logoAmong the groups submitting formal comment letters to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in response to the proposed Medicaid fiscal accountability regulation was the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania.  See SNAP’s letter here.

Learn more about why these groups object to these two new policy developments in articles in Axios (“A little-noticed Medicaid proposal could have huge consequences”), Bloomberg Law (“Trump Plan to Tame State Medicaid Finance Schemes Sees Pushback”), Health Affairs (“Proposed Rules On Medicaid Financing Miss Mark And Threaten Access”), Healthcare Dive (“Payers, providers urge CMS to scrap rule targeting supplemental Medicaid payments”), Healthcare Finance News (“Providers, payers, others speak out against federal proposals for Medicaid funding”), McKnight’s Long-Term Care News (“Providers rally against proposed Medicaid supplemental payment rules that threaten ‘major financial burdens’”), McKnight’s Senior Living (“CMS proposal would be ‘major financial burden’ for CCRCs, residents, organizations say”),  and U.S. News & World Report (“Governors Warn Trump Rule Could Lead to Big Medicaid Cuts”)