Medicaid: Deficit Reduction Act

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The Deficit Reduction Act, signed into law in February 2006, contains two kinds of provisions that affect Medicaid:

1. changes that all states are required to implement, such as the citizenship documentation provision and new asset transfer provisions, and
2. changes that states have the option to implement via state plan amendments, including changes to cost-sharing amounts, changes in the authority to charge premiums, changes to benefit packages, and Health Opportunity Account demonstration programs.

Summaries of the DRA-related state plan amendments that CMS has approved so far are listed below.

See Deficit Reduction Act for general information about the DRA and implementation issues at the federal level.

See Citizenship Documentation for information on this requirement and its consequences.

 

State Plan Amendments

 

Idaho

• Idaho Medicaid under the DRA: Changing Benefit Packages for Participants (Families USA)
• Idaho Department of Health and Welfare “Modernizing Medicaid” Web site: includes official documents, information for providers and beneficiaries, status updates, and more.

Kansas

• CMS fact sheet on Kansas "Working Healthy" State Plan Amendment

Kentucky

• Kentucky Medicaid Reform: Using the DRA to Implement Changes (state plan amendment summary) (Families USA)
• Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services “KyHealth Choices” Web site: includes official documents, regulations, information on Medicaid changes for providers and beneficiaries, and more.

South Carolina

• CMS Fact Sheet on State Employee High-Deductible Health Plan
• CMS Fact Sheet on Health Opportunity Accounts (HOAs)

Virginia

• CMS fact sheet on Virginia "Healthy Returns" State Plan Amendment

Washington

• CMS Fact Sheet on Washington's Disease Management Benchmark Benefit Flexibility State Plan Amendment

West Virginia

• Mountain Health Choices: An Unhealthy Choice for West Virginians (Families USA, August 2008)
• Radical Changes in Medicaid for West Virginia (state plan amendment summary) (Families USA) 
• Other advocacy pieces:
  • West Virginia’s Medicaid Changes Unlikely to Reduce State Costs or Improve Beneficiaries’ Health (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, May 2006)
  • What Will West Virginia’s “Medicaid Redesign” Mean for Children? (Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, Center for Children and Families, May 2006)
• West Virginia’s state plan amendment

General Information

• Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) State Medicaid Deficit Reduction Act Amendment web page: includes official state plan amendments for Kansas, Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.