Reporting Requirements for Additional Funding for Medicaid HCBS during the COVID-19 Emergency
CMS-10398 #69
Response to Public Comments – June, 2021
Comment: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) received one comment in response to the public comment request for the generic Paperwork Reduction Act package titled “Reporting Requirements for Additional Funding for Medicaid HCBS during the COVID-19 Emergency,” which was posted to the Federal Register on May 20, 2021. The comment was from an Independent Living Specialist and it requested that the reporting requirements be expanded to address sustained community living, aging-in-place, and the intersection of housing and HCBS. It also advocated for the passage of the Real Emergency Access for Aging and Disability Inclusion Act and the Disaster Relief Medicaid Act.
CMS Response: CMS values efforts to ensure individuals have the supports necessary to remain in the community and age-in-place, however believes the request to expand the reporting requirements to require states receiving additional funding to address these concepts, as well as the intersection of housing and HCBS, is outside the scope of Section 9817 of the American Rescue Plan. Section 9817 is specific to the implementation of activities that enhance, expand, or strengthen HCBS under the Medicaid program. Section 9817 does not cite concepts such as sustained community living and aging-in-place and states therefore will not be required to specifically indicate how their activities will support these goals. However, states will be required to provide sufficient detail to affirm that the state’s activities enhance, expand, or strengthen their HCBS system, and CMS believes that sustained community living and aging-in-place may be directly or indirectly impacted by enhanced funding activities given that they are common goals of states’ HCBS systems.
Regarding the Real Emergency Access for Aging and Disability Inclusion Act and the Disaster Relief Medicaid Act, these are legislative activities and are therefore under the sole purview of the US Congress.
Action(s) Taken: CMS greatly appreciates this feedback. CMS has and will continue to promote concepts such as sustained community living and aging-in-place as part of its routine HCBS activities.
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Ryan Shannahan |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2024-07-23 |