CMS is aiming to finish reviewing all comments that were received on the Medicaid Access Rule by Spring according to the Office of Management and Budget. If all goes according to plan (not by any means a guarantee) the final rule would be released in April. The proposed rule, released in May of 2023 for comment, included wide ranging provisions to enhance transparency around state Medicaid programs with the goals of increasing access to and quality of services delivered through Medicaid.
While LeadingAge was broadly supportive of these provisions, this rule also included a requirement to pass 80% of Medicaid rates on to workers through compensation for three home and community-based services (home health, homemaker, and personal care). LeadingAge comments stressed a lack of data and infrastructure for CMS to base informed decisions about any threshold for a passthrough and noted unintended consequences and perverse incentives that finalization of this provision could have on access to and quality of these services. An article on this proposed rule is available here along with links to LeadingAge’s comments.
