Last week, the New York State Department of Health (DOH) released a draft version of its Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) Waiver Demonstration Extension Request. The extension request seeks a three-year extension (April 1, 2021-March 31, 2024) of all current programs and authorities under the State’s current MRT Waiver Demonstration, and the following two programmatic amendments:
- Transition (carve-out) of the non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT) benefit from managed long term care (MLTC) to fee-for-service (FFS); and
- Transition (carve-out) of pharmacy benefits from Medicaid managed care (MMC) to FFS.
If this extension is approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the State will then submit future programmatic amendments that pursue further transformation goals requiring 1115 Waiver authority.
The draft extension proposal is available here, and a summary can be found here. Public comments will be accepted until January 15, 2021. The State will host two virtual public forums on January 21, 2021 and January 27, 2021 from 1pm to 4pm (details available in the attached summary). The State plans to submit the extension proposal to CMS in early March 2021 following a review and consideration of public written and verbal comments.