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On February 3, Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Kathleen Sebelius addressed a letter to the nation’s governors, addressing recent requests that the federal government provide states more flexibility to operate state Medicaid programs in light of ongoing state budgetary concerns.

In response to the request for waiving health reform provisions that generally require states to maintain their existing levels of Medicaid eligibility through 2014, the Secretary states that she is continuing “to review what authority, if any, I have to waive the maintenance of effort under current law.” The Secretary lists several areas where existing law provides states with flexibility to achieve cost savings. The options cited include modifying benefits and increasing beneficiary cost-sharing, targeting initiatives to reduce the costs of high-cost beneficiaries, purchasing prescription drugs more efficiently, and preventing and fighting fraud, waste, and abuse.

An HHS document accompanying the Secretary’s letter, entitled “Medicaid Cost-Savings Opportunities,” provides more detail on “opportunities for Medicaid efficiencies” that are now available to the states.

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This entry was posted by cmonfils on Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 at 10:28 am and is filed under Medicaid, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.