Federal Assistance & MRT 2.0

March 17, 2020

Last night the House passed it’s twice revised coronavirus emergency assistance bill.  It’s now up to the Senate to do the same.

If NYS expected to take advantage of the expanded FMAP ($6.7B for NYS) proposal provided by the Congressional coronavirus aid package, it would have to abide by an accompanying Maintenance of Effort (MOE) requirement that restricts changes to the Medicaid Program, including eligibility, benefits and more.

It’s extremely unlikely NY will turn down these funds.  This may be why Governor Cuomo came out publicly and criticized Senator Schumer and Congresswoman Nita Lowey despite the potential for $6.7B from an FMAP increase from Washington in that the the funds come with strings. All of this seems to render MRT 2 moot (for now).  According to some members of the MRT, they have not been engaged at all since the meeting on 3/10.  And (to date) they have not received the background information and scoring from DoB on each of the proposed items that were to be sent to them by last Friday.

Here’s an article in this morning’s Crain’s Health Pulse expanding on this topic:

Federal coronavirus bill raises concern about Medicaid redesign, CHP,  3/17

The latest coronavirus relief bill being crafted by federal lawmakers is raising concern about the state’s ongoing Medicaid redesign team process.

A provision in the bill—which includes increasing federal funds for Medicaid to help states divert spending to other areas—preempts Medicaid redesign, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday during a press briefing on Covid-19.

The state-appointed Medicaid redesign team has met twice in recent weeks with a goal of identifying ways in which New York could achieve billions of dollars in Medicaid savings. The effort is needed to balance the state budget by the end of this month.

However, the federal bill’s provision says there can be no changes to Medicaid eligibility and enrollment standards, among other areas, State Budget Director Robert Mujica said at the press conference.

Cuomo said he believed the provision was aimed at protecting counties in New York from picking up excess Medicaid costs that the state currently covers. That has been one suggestion from the state to address surging Medicaid spending. Local leaders have opposed it.

The Medicaid redesign team’s third and final meeting is scheduled for March 19 in Albany. At that time, the team is expected to prepare final recommendations for the state. —Jennifer Henderson