The non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and the states on a variety of Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program issues met last week in Washington, D.C.

Among the issues on the agenda of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission were:

  • the flexibility of states in structuring and administering their Medicaid and CHIP programs
  • state Medicaid responses to fiscal pressures
  • studies requested by Congress on mandatory/optional benefits and populations
  • current Medicaid parallels to per capita financing options
  • illustrations of state-level effects of per capita cap design elements
  • high-cost hepatitis C drugs in Medicaid
  • the role of section 1915(b) waivers in Medicaid managed care

Because they serve so many Medicaid and CHIP patients, private safety-net hospitals are especially interested in what MACPAC has to say about these and other subjects.

Go here, to the MACPAC web site, for links to documents on all of these subjects.