Briefs Examine CMS Rules Governing Changes to Medicaid Eligibility And Enrollment Under the Affordable Care Act

Two new briefs from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured examine changes to Medicaid eligibility and enrollment rules under the Affordable Care Act, and how such changes are expected to affect those covered by the program, including people with disabilities. 

The first brief titled, Medicaid Eligibility, Enrollment Simplification, and Coordination under the Affordable Care Act: A Summary of CMS's March 23, 2012 Final Rule, provides a summary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) March 23, 2012 final rule to implement the ACA provisions relating to Medicaid eligibility, enrollment simplification and coordination. The rule, which is effective Jan. 1, 2014, lays out procedures for states to implement the Medicaid expansion and the streamlined and integrated eligibility and enrollment system created under the ACA. Achieving this goal will require substantial process and system changes among state Medicaid agencies and close coordination between Medicaid, the new health insurance Exchanges and other insurance affordability programs. 

The second is a companion brief titled, Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment for People with Disabilities Under the Affordable Care Act: The Impact on CMS's March 23, 2012 Final Regulations, provides a short summary of Medicaid eligibility and benefits for people with disabilities today and explains how they will be affected by the ACA in light of CMS’s new regulations. Provisions of the new Exchange regulations are discussed briefly to the extent that they related to Medicaid eligibility determinations for people with disabilities.