Through our ongoing conversations with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department has received guidance that we can seek the necessary federal authority for the program through a 1915(b) waiver. A new 1915(b) waiver will give the Department the federal authority to fulfill key components of Phase II, including automatic enrollment of members into the ACC and the utilization of one entity per region to administer primary care and behavioral health services for members.
In preparation for our waiver submission, the Department has been working with Leavitt Partners to analyze our waiver options. As experts in CMS authorities, Leavitt Partners is also helping the Phase II Team draft the waiver request. The two consultants from Leavitt Partners have more than 65 years of combined working experience in Medicaid and state health programming. They have been valuable assets in the development and refinement of a draft waiver and communications with CMS.
The Department intends to formally submit the waiver draft to CMS on September 1st in order to open up a dialogue with them and move towards the final draft submission in 2017.
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