[Source: Health Lawyers Weekly, February 22, 2008 - AHLA]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a pair of rules February 22 that would give states more flexibility in designing their Medicaid programs and require increased cost-sharing from beneficiaries.
The rules, which would implement provisions of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 and the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, are the latest in a series of regulations to implement the administration’s goals of aligning Medicaid more closely with private market insurance and giving states more control over their Medicaid benefits packages, CMS said in a press release.
Under one rule, states will have the opportunity to offer beneficiaries healthcare that has the same value as plans that are being offered to other populations in the state, through alternative benefit packages called "benchmark plans," the release said.
Continue reading
Read the proposed premiums and cost sharing rule, 73 Fed. Reg. 9727.
Read the proposed rule giving states flexibility, 73 Fed. Reg. 9714.
View CMS' press release.
