The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission has submitted its annual report to Congress on Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

The report includes recommendations for:

• improving Medicaid’s responsiveness during economic downturns
• addressing concerns about high rates of maternal morbidity and mortality;
• reexamining Medicaid’s estate recovery policies
• integrating care for people who are dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare
• improving hospital payment policy for the nation’s safety-net hospitals

MACPAC is a non-partisan legislative branch agency that “provides policy and data analysis and makes recommendations to Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the states on a wide array of issues affecting Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).”  Its mandate calls for it to address matters such as Medicaid and CHIP payment, eligibility, enrollment and retention, coverage, access to care, quality of care, and the programs’ interaction with Medicare and the health care system generally.

Because Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals care for so many more Medicaid and CHIP participants than the typical community hospital, MACPAC’s deliberations are especially important to them.

Learn more about MACPAC’s recommendations in its Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP.