In December 2015, MACPAC provided comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Senate Finance and House Energy and Commerce Committees on HHS’s report to Congress on Transparency in the Review and Approval of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Section 1115 Demonstrations.
The Commission supported HHS’s efforts to improve the transparency of demonstrations authorized under Section 1115 of the Social Security Act, which 38 states currently use to make a wide variety of changes to Medicaid or CHIP eligibility, benefits, and delivery systems. In addition, the Commission pointed to opportunities to build on HHS’s progress, including better documenting HHS’s changes to a demonstration in response to public comments; improving public access to monitoring and evaluation reports and budget neutrality projections; and continuing to reduce administrative barriers for states.