Manatt Health
TO BE RESCHEDULED
State Health and Value Strategies was planning to host a webinar, The Fiscal Impact of the Healthy Adult Opportunity Medicaid Demonstration Initiative, on Thursday, March 19, to discuss findings from a new publication by our friends at the Commonwealth Fund and Manatt Health. In light of the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, this webinar will be rescheduled.
As you may know from our earlier webinar, Medicaid Capped Funding Demonstrations: Considerations for States, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released guidance inviting states to apply for the Healthy Adult Opportunity Medicaid demonstration initiative, which allows states to opt into a block grant funding model. The issue brief finds that the initiative would result in substantially less federal funding for state Medicaid programs—including a 10.5 percent reduction in the median state between fiscal years 2021 and 2025—as well as greater financial risks for states that elect to pursue the demonstration. The estimates show even greater losses if costs or enrollment rise above current national projections. States opting to participate will likely have to make significant cuts in enrollees’ coverage, reduce benefits, impose higher cost sharing, and lower payment rates for providers who treat Medicaid patients. And the demonstration’s “shared savings” feature, which allows states to divert some of the capped federal dollars into other state priorities, would lead to additional Medicaid cuts. During the webinar, experts from Manatt Health will share their findings from the new publication, with an opportunity for states to ask questions of the report authors.