Hospital groups express opposition to easing Medicaid rules

Modern Healthcare: Hospital Associations Oppose Easing Of Medicaid Maintenance-Of-Effort Rules
Relaxing maintenance-of-effort provisions will move many low-income Americans out of Medicaid programs and increase the number of the uninsured population, several hospital associations cautioned in a letter Tuesday to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. The American Hospital Association, the Association of Medical Colleges, the Catholic Health Association, the Federation of American Hospitals, the National Association of Children's Hospitals, the National Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems, and VHA emphasized their strong support for the Medicaid maintenance-of-effort, or MOE, requirement included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in 2009 and extended last year in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The provision gives states increased Medicaid funding if states agree not to reduce the eligibility requirements below their February 2009 levels (Zigmond, 3/1).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.