Meghan— this is just to confirm what we have discussed to date on the Texas waiver. A proposal was received in April 2008, after discussions were held on a previous concept paper.  A letter (which you have a copy of) was sent to the state in August 2008 outlining what we found approvable/not approvable in their proposal.  We also offered to continue with technical assistance to help them prepare an acceptable proposal.  Staff  has had occasional conference calls with the state since that time, but we have not yet received a revised proposal from the state.

 

We do not wish to comment directly on the governor’s statements. 

 

I hope this is helpful.  thanks

 

 

 

 

Hi, Mary.  Thanks for your help again.  I am writing about a Medicaid waiver request that the state of Texas first submitted back in April 2008.  We talked about the status of the request in April 2010, and this is what you told me at that time:

This is from my story then:

Mary Kahn said the agency was waiting for Texas to revise and resubmit its proposal. "They haven't sent us anything that meets the full requirements of being a formal waiver request," Kahn said. "In other words, the ball is in the state's court."

We are going to do a new story about the waiver request because Texas Gov. Rick Perry continues to talk about it.  Here's what he has said most recently: Texas has come up with good ideas to effectively deliver care, like the waiver I submitted to the federal government which conveyed a vision for reducing the number of uninsured Texans by restructuring federal Medicaid funding. Unfortunately, this waiver, which presents a strategic alternative to continued reliance on government-run health care programs, has languished in a file cabinet at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for more than two years.

So my questions are:

1) Is Gov. Perry correct that the waiver has been languishing in a file cabinet at CMS for more than two years?

2) What is the current status of the waiver request from Texas that was originally submitted in April 2008?

3) Has there been any communications between CMS and the state since we last talked about the waiver request in April 2010?  If so, what was discussed?

Thanks so much.

Meghan

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Meghan Ashford-Grooms

Austin American-Statesman

mashford-grooms@statesman.com

office: 512-445-3831

cell: 615-424-1791