Medicaid and Work Requirements

On January 11, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a State Medicaid Director Letter providing new guidance for Section 1115 waiver proposals that would impose work requirements in Medicaid as a condition of eligibility.

As of press time, CMS has approved work requirement waivers for Kentucky, Indiana and Arkansas. As many as 13 other states have pending waiver requests and/or have stated they plan to apply, including North Carolina.

In this blog post, we will look at the goals and concerns of this new guidance, as well as some of the work requirements that will soon be implemented.

Medicaid work requirement proposals generally would require beneficiaries to verify their participation in approved activities, such as employment, job search or job training programs, for a certain number of hours per week in order to receive health coverage. Certain populations, including children, the elderly, disabled, medically frail, pregnant women, caregivers and students would be exempt.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma has stated that she hopes the work requirements will improve enrollees’ health while reducing Medicaid rolls, and that requiring people to work would encourage them to find jobs that offer health coverage or make enough money to afford private plans.

Some eligible people may lose coverage due to their inability to navigate the processes, miscommunication or other breakdowns in the administrative process. This could be especially true of people with disabilities who may not obtain an exemption for which they qualify and end up losing coverage.

Additionally, some people may have trouble getting the documentation to prove they aren’t healthy enough to work. According to a Kaiser study, roughly one-third of non-elderly adults with Medicaid report having a disability, but nearly 60% of those do not receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI).

The impact of work requirements on people with disabilities will depend, in part, on whether states will correctly identify and exempt people who can’t work and what types of support services they provide to help them.

Remember that the team at Hillsborough Wills & Trusts has the expertise to help you understand these issues and to Build Your Circle of Security through strong legal documents and good counsel. We are here to help you succeed! Contact us at: https://hillsboroughwills.com/contact