The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) yesterday, Aug. 8, released an updated proposal for implementing the Medicaid reforms adopted by the General Assembly in 2015. Review the 77-page plan.
NCDHHS is soliciting public comment on the document until Sept. 8. The North Carolina Medical Society (NCMS) will be submitting formal comments, and, as always, we invite you to share your thoughts with us on the proposal.
The original plan submitted about 14 months ago under Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is still pending. The updated proposal unveiled yesterday by Gov. Roy Cooper’s team at NCDHHS contains several changes including:
- Integrating behavioral health and physical health more quickly than originally proposed.
- Increased focus on social determinants of health including greater access to telemedicine and attention to the opioid abuse crisis.
- Offering supports for providers in the new managed care arrangement including streamlined credentialing and beneficiary enrollment processes.
Changes such as these and others in the proposal would require approval from the General Assembly before a revised waiver request could be submitted to CMS. The timeline included in the proposal has the amended waiver being submitted to CMS before the end of the year with approval anticipated sometime in the first quarter of 2018.
https://files.nc.gov/ncdhhs/documents/files/MedicaidManagedCare_ProposedProgramDesign_REVFINAL_20170808.pdf