Monitoring

States received approval for temporary changes to their HCBS programs from CMS, within the Department of Health and Human Services to enable states to limit in-person contact to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This GAO report describes the temporary changes to Medicaid HCBS programs and examines CMS’s monitoring and evaluation of the effects of those changes.

On Friday, April 8, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a final rule in the Federal Register to extend the deadline to October 1, 2016, for state submissions of the access monitoring review plan to CMS. The deadline was originally set for July 1, 2016. CMS published the final rule with comment period, Medicaid Program; Methods for Assuring Access to Covered Medicaid Services, on November 2, 2015.