July 19, 2022

Good afternoon,

This week we are cancelling our regularly scheduled Thursday morning NYS Council Member Support and Public Policy and suggesting that you register for and attend (virtually) the UHF Annual Medicaid Conference (info linked here), if only to hear our new State Medicaid Director give the opening keynote address.  The Conference is free for all attendees.

Recently, we learned that the state’s new 1115 waiver application is likely to go to CMS in September.  If so, this is a slight departure from previous timelines that said  end of July for state submission to CMS.  This is not necessarily an indication of anything being wrong.  The state received MANY comments from the public, and it is required to show the range of comments and then respond (to CMS) regarding the major areas that were brought up by stakeholders, in its’ submission.  Ideally, the state is fine tuning its’ application based on stakeholder input.  In any case, we urge NYS Council members to tune in at 9:30 to hear the latest.  We will resume our weekly Thursday morning calls on July 28.

For your information, linked is  the HMA Power Point we circulated earlier in the year that discusses the new 1115 Waiver and more.  Also linked are the comments the NYS Council submitted in May during the first formal public comment period.  There will be additional opportunities to comment on the 1115 Proposal.