In the absence of legislation to turn Medicaid into a block grant program, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is talking to some states about granting waivers that permit them – voluntarily – to turn their individual Medicaid programs into block grants.

HHS Secretary Alex Azar acknowledged this last week during a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee.  He did not disclose which states, or how many, with which HHS has had such discussions and he also noted that his staff is talking to state officials about waivers to permit them to adopt Medicaid per capita spending limits.

NASH has long been concerned about any effort to impose artificial limits on state Medicaid spending; such limits could be especially harmful to private safety-net hospitals because they care for so many Medicaid patients.  NASH’s most recent expression of this concern can be found in its 2019 advocacy agenda.

Learn more from the article “Trump health chief reveals talks with states on Medicaid block grants,” which can be found in the online publication The Hill.