The federal agency responsible for advising Congress on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program payment and access issues met last week in Washington, D.C.

According to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission,

The initial sessions of MACPAC’s September 2016 Commission meeting focused on hospital payment policy, first discussing MACPAC’s new work to develop an index of Medicaid inpatient payments across states and relative to Medicare, and later looking at how Affordable Care Act coverage expansions have affected hospitals serving a disproportionate share of low-income patients, including those with Medicaid coverage. The Commission then reviewed state policies for covering and paying for services in residential care settings, part of the drive to rebalance long-term services and supports from institutions to the community.

A briefing on MACPAC’s recent roundtable on improving service delivery to Medicaid beneficiaries with serious mental illness kicked off the afternoon sessions, followed by a discussion of Medicaid financing and its relationship to provider payment policies. At the final session of the day, the Commission reviewed the possible elements of a package of recommendations on children’s coverage and the future of CHIP.

The following are the presentation materials referenced during the meeting:

• Comparing Medicaid Hospital Payment Across States and to Medicare
• Implications of ACA Coverage Expansions for Medicaid DSH Policy
• The Role of Residential Care Settings in Delivering Long-Term Services and Supports
• Improving Service Delivery to Medicaid Beneficiaries with Serious Mental Illness: Themes from the Roundtable Discussion
• The Relationship between Medicaid Financing and Provider Payment Policies
• Children’s Coverage Recommendations: Draft Specifications

MACPAC’s deliberations often have implications for private safety-net hospitals.