House Bill on Medicaid and NYS MOE

May 12, 2020

As we stated earlier the House Dems bill includes enhanced FMAP (federal Medicaid matching rate) at 14% for one year.  This is terrific news, as it would provide a major influx of Medicaid relief so desperately needed right now.  For NYS, it would mean the federal share of Medicaid in NYS (which is usually 50%) will go to 64%.  (The first Coronavirus aid package enhancement was 6.2%.)  There will be work to do on how the money is allocated (for actual services to people and securing the safety net, rather than padding the pockets of hospitals that will do just fine without it).  But for now, this is very good news.

There is, however, some additional news to share:

Governor Cuomo has been lobbying Washington lawmakers for many weeks, arguing for a NY specific exemption from the Maintenance of Effort (MOE) requirements that prohibit states from restricting access and coverage to state Medicaid services during the period the enhanced FMAP is in place.  With a NY exemption from the MOE in place, the harmful Medicaid changes enacted in this year’s state budget (think MRT proposals) would be allowed to go through – if the final negotiated bill continues to include exemption language for NY.  

The MOE language is on the very last page of the bill.  Here is a link to the bill: https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20200511/BILLS-116hr6800ih.pdf