CMS Announces 3 High Visibility Medicaid Reports

In the past two weeks, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued three reports on Medicaid supports and funding, receiving coverage in policy-centric media outlets such as Politico. This makes it likely those reports will attract the attention of state and federal policy-makers who make key decisions on Medicaid, including its funding levels.

• The Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) dataset, which has been years in the making, features significantly updated statistics on Medicaid beneficiaries and providers, fee-for-service and managed care claims, and managed care plans and liable third parties. Here is a fact sheet, press release and additional information on T-MSIS. At this time, the data are only available to researchers who sign user agreements.

• The second annual Medicaid and CHIP Score Card, which now include data points on 1915(c) waivers for Home and Community-Based Settings (HCBS) and dual-eligible populations in its national context section.

• The Payment Error Rate Measurement (PERM), which found a spike in improper Medicaid payments. PERM surveys one-third of states every year. In a preview of the report which appeared in Politico Pro, CMS found that Medicaid’s improper payment rate jumped from about 10 percent in fiscal 2018 to about 15 percent in 2019. CMS announced that improper Medicaid payments surged from about $36 billion in fiscal 2018 to about $57 billion in 2019. This is sure to influence the national conversation on Medicaid oversight and transparency and the Medicaid expansion covered by the Affordable Care Act. CMS’ press release on this came out late on Monday.