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CMS Requires States to Address Medicaid Backlogs

July 15, 2014
Staff

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) required six states to submit plans explaining how they will resolve backlogs in their Medicaid enrollment systems by July 14. CMS sent letters to Alaska, California, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, and Tennessee on June 27, giving the states 10 business days to submit their plans. An additional seven letters were sent to Arkansas, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, and Wyoming on July 9. The letters did not include a deadline by which states must resolve backlogs. While the letters do not explicitly say that states could see cuts to their federal Medicaid matching funding if the problems are not addressed, CMS has the legal authority to do so. States attribute much of the backlog to technical problems that prevented the federal insurance marketplace (exchange) from transferring data on applicants to state Medicaid agencies.

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