Projects to end the Institutional Bias

New Discussion Draft of Bill to Make HCBS a Mandatory Medicaid Benefit

This week, Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) released a discussion draft of the HCBS Access Act, which would end the Medicaid program’s bias towards institutional care by requiring states to cover home and community-based services (HCBS). The HCBS Access Act would also enhance access and address inequities by creating a higher baseline set of services and other minimum requirements for all states and investing in the infrastructure and the workforce providing HCBS. 

The sponsors posted a memo seeking stakeholder input on the discussion draft text through April 26, 2021. Justice in Aging will share more about the discussion draft and our feedback soon. 

Bill Introduced to Make Medicaid Money Follows the Person Permanent  

Last Friday, Representatives Upton (R-MI) and Dingell (D-MI) reintroduced a bill to make the Medicaid Money Follows the Person (MFP) Program permanent (H.R.1880). This bill followed reintroduction of the bill to permanently authorize spousal impoverishment protections for people eligible for Medicaid HCBS (H.R. 1717). Both provisions are currently authorized through 2023 and are important to increasing access to HCBS and ending the institutional bias. 

Read more about MFP and spousal impoverishment protections.