The federal government has greatly increased the speed with which it is reviewing and approving state applications to modify their Medicaid programs.

Most often, such applications involve Medicaid state plan amendments and section 1915 waiver requests.

According to a recent post on the CMS blog (in CMS’s own words),

• Between calendar years 2016 and 2018, there was a 16 percent decrease in the median approval time for Medicaid SPAs [note:  state plan amendments].
• Seventy-eight percent of SPAs were approved within the first 90 day review period during calendar year 2018, a 14 percent increase over 2016.
• Between calendar year 2016 and 2018, median approval times for 1915(b) waivers decreased by 11 percent, 1915(c) renewal approval times decreased by 38 percent, and 1915(c) amendment approval times decreased by 28 percent.
• The backlog of pending SPA and 1915 waiver actions pending additional information from the states was reduced 80 percent from previous years.

Learn more in the CMS blog entry “CMS Streamlines Medicaid Review Process and Reduces Approval Times so States Can More Effectively Manage Their Programs.”