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Texas will have to ask for a renewal this year to continue receiving billions of dollars from the federal government for treating the uninsured.
It’s known as the Medicaid 1115 waiver, or the money which offsets the cost of uncompensated care for Medicaid enrollees. In a web hearing, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission talked about continuing the waiver past 2016.
The commission’s Lisa Kirsch said they are not asking for any changes.
“We do have a lot of improvements underway in managed care, coming out of the 84th legislative session: improving our monitoring of network adequacy, working on more and value-based purchasing and aligning Medicaid quality strategies, and also improving collaboration between managed care consumer support systems.”
Texas lawmakers have refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The 1115 waiver helped Texas pay for increased capacity for Medicaid patients once the Affordable Care Act became law. The commission’s Ardas Khalsa says the commission will continue taking public input.
“HHFC plans to submit the draft waiver to the governor’s office for review by late August, early September. Your comments received at these meetings will be considered in the draft HHFC submits to the governor’s office.”
The governor will then ask for a renewal if he wants that federal money to continue.