Medicaid work requirements appear to be going away in the wake of the Supreme Court agreeing to a Biden administration request to postpone arguments in a case brought by the Trump administration seeking to reverse previous court rulings blocking implementation of such requirements.

To date, 12 states have received federal approval to implement Medicaid work requirements although only one such effort, in Arkansas, ever got off the ground.  All of the efforts eventually stalled in the face of legal challenges and administrative obstacles.  Upon taking office, the Biden administration informed the 12 states that it was considering withdrawing their approvals to proceed, and now, the Justice Department has told the Supreme Court that the administration will be reversing the approvals and asked the court not to hear arguments to enable those states to proceed.  As a result, the Supreme Court canceled oral arguments for the case that were scheduled for later this month.

NASH has long been skeptical about Medicaid work requirements, concerned that safety-net hospitals could be left with large amounts of uncompensated care provided to former Medicaid patients who have lost their eligibility for benefits under Medicaid work requirements.

Learn more about the latest development in the long-running effort to introduce Medicaid work requirements – and the almost-as-long campaign to prevent such requirements – in the Healthcare Dive article “SCOTUS drops Medicaid work requirement arguments at Biden administration’s request.”