On Monday, May 7th, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) denied Kansas’ proposal to implement a three-year time limit on Medicaid. Several states have applied to implement lifetime time limits (which cap the period of time for which a person can enroll in Medicaid; previous lifetime limits on private coverage set dollar limits on coverage. In both cases, once a person hits the limit, their insurance coverage abruptly ends). On Monday, the federal government said that was not allowed for Kansas Medicaid. NHF is heartened by this decision, because time limits jeopardize access to coverage for people with bleeding disorders on Medicaid.
Meanwhile, CMS did recently approve a proposal by New Hampshire to implement work requirements for its Medicaid enrollees. Most healthy, able-bodied adults between 19 - 64 will be required to work 100 hours per month in order to maintain their Medicaid coverage. New Hampshire joins Kentucky, Indiana, and Arkansas as states that have implemented work requirements for their Medicaid enrollees.
NHF is continuing to monitor the progress of Medicaid policy changes that may affect the community. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
To see where your state stands on this and a number of other Medicaid waivers, visit the Kaiser Family Foundations interactive tool.