A final agreement has been reached between New York State and federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on an USD 8 billion Medicaid waiver, Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Monday.
The Medicaid waiver is being designed to support the state’s struggling hospitals over a five-year period.
The state will now be able to keep USD 8 billion of the federal savings and reinvest it in its health care network.
Cuomo’s office announced that the USD 8 billion will be broken up into three parts.
The first part will be of USD 500 million for an Interim Access Assurance Fund. This will provide temporary funding for Medicaid safety-net providers.
The second part will be of USD 6.42 billion. This will help hospitals reform their delivery systems.
The third part will be of USD 1.08 billion for other purposes like health home development, investments in long term care, workforce and enhanced behavioral health services.
Cuomo’s office also said that the funding will be disbursed to hospitals based on a formula tied to the number of Medicaid patients seen by the providers.
New York had first applied for the waiver funding in August 2012 after the state Medicaid Redesign Team implemented a series of reforms to the health care program. But in December 2013, the administration was forced to amend their application.
The state’s original waiver application sought USD 10 billion, but the final agreement was reached on USD 8 billion.
The final waiver agreement appears to be a compromise with some notable exceptions.
Under this waiver plan, the state is committed to improve primary care, reduce avoidable hospitalizations and improve health for beneficiaries.
