CMS to convene workgroups to streamline access monitoring in Medicaid

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to convene workgroups and technical expert panels to develop a “streamlined, comprehensive approach to monitoring access across Medicaid delivery systems,” the agency announced yesterday. The workgroups will focus on identifying how the current requirements could be improved; the most effective approach to ensuring beneficiary access to care; how CMS can best ensure states comply with the statutory access requirements; and the best way to align access monitoring across fee-for-service and managed care delivery systems, the agency said. They also will identify data that could be available to conduct access reviews at the federal level and the types of analyses that would be beneficial. CMS yesterday issued a proposed rule that would rescind a 2015 rule requiring states to develop and submit access monitoring review plans to CMS for some Medicaid services. The requirement applies to primary care, physician specialists, behavioral health, pre- and post-natal obstetrics (including labor and delivery), and home health services.