Indiana gets Medicaid waiver extension as review continues

The CMS has granted Indiana a short-term extension for its Medicaid waiver as it continues to review its long-term extension request.

The waiver was set to expire Jan. 31, but will now continue through Feb. 28, according to a letter released by state officials Monday. Indiana initially submitted the renewal request a year ago.

The pending waiver request seeks to continue the state's Medicaid expansion, known as Healthy Indiana 2.0 plan. Under the program, beneficiaries pay premium contributions, have health savings accounts, get incentives for healthy behaviors, and face a benefit lockout if they don't pay premiums.

The state wants to require all able-bodied HIP participants to either work 20 hours per week on average; be enrolled in full- or part-time education; or participate in a job search and training program.

Indiana would not require students, pregnant women, homeless individuals and some other Medicaid beneficiaries to seek work or be employed as a condition of program eligibility.

Indiana estimates that 30%, or 130,000 of the 438,604 Medicaid enrollees, will have to comply with the new requirement after factoring in all the exemptions.

However, as many as 33,000 of the people still eligible for the requirement will choose not to comply, and thus lose their benefits. The state did not clarify in its waiver why these people would choose not to comply.

Currently, 244,000 Indiana Medicaid beneficiaries are unemployed and an additional 58,000 members work fewer than 20 hours per week.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma has recused herself from weighing in on any decisions involving the Indiana waiver and Brian Neale, CMS' Medicaid director who is exiting in February, was also expected to recuse himself. Both helped draft HIP 2.0 when Vice President Mike Pence was governor of Indiana.