The Assembly Budget Committee invited experts to a Medicaid roundtable on April 4, 2011 to discuss the proposals in the FY’12 proposed budget related to Medicaid.
ABCD’s Executive Director, Lowell Arye, was invited to be part of the roundtable discussion. Lowell’s introductory remarks focused on:
1) Need to maximize all federal Medicaid revenues: including the current waivers and to reinvest those funds in services, as well as the new provisions of the Affordable Care Act (Community First Choice Option and Balancing Incentive Payment Program) and maximizing EPSDT funds for Early Intervention;
2) Concerns related to Medicaid co-pays (both Medical Day Care and the elimination of the Wrap-around program for dual eligibles for Medicare Part D-which will cause them to have co-pays); and
3) Comprehensive Waiver: That we still do not have enough information to fully comment on it but that it might provide some flexibility for services and eliminate the funding silos in the current home and community-based waivers.
To more fully understand maximizing Federal Medicaid funds, ABCD has developed several policy syntheses.
1) Synthesis of the provisions of the Balancing Incentive Payment Program in the Affordable Care Act;
2) Synthesis of the provisions of the Community First Choice Option in the Affordable Care Act; and
3) Policy Synthesis on Early Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT)
