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07/05/2016

Ohio Medicaid submits healthy Ohio waiver

Source:  Office of Health Transformation

During consideration of the state budget enacted June 30, 2015, the Ohio General Assembly included a provision that required the Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) to seek federal permission to mandate enrollment in a Health Savings Account for every non-disabled adult enrolled in Medicaid. On June 30, 2016, ODM submitted a Section 1115 waiver request to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement the Healthy Ohio Program. CMS will post Ohio's waiver request online and invite public comment. There is no formal deadline for CMS to respond to the state for 1115 waiver decisions.

Summary
Waiver 

The OPPA submitted a letter to ODM in May expressing concern that the waiver "will have the effect of limiting access to care for Ohioans who are most in need of coverage as a means to achieve health engagement and personal responsibility . . . and that the requirements that would be placed on Ohioans who have serious and persistent mental illness would be unduly burdensome."

The Ohio Department of Medicaid received written comments from at least 119 individuals and 43 organizations (many representing coalitions of multiple organizations) expressing similar concerns. 

The OPPA will submit our concerns again in writing once CMS post's Ohio's waiver online and invites public comment.

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