States are required to ensure transportation to and from providers for Medicaid beneficiaries, a benefit known as non-emergency medical transportation (NEMT). In recent years, policymakers at the state and federal levels have begun to re-examine this benefit. The Senate Appropriations Committee report language for fiscal year (FY) 2020 directs MACPAC to examine the benefits of NEMT for beneficiaries, and the benefits of improving coordination of NEMT with public transportation and other federally assisted transportation services.
To respond to the committee’s request, MACPAC is conducting a multi-pronged study. At the October 2020 meeting, MACPAC described preliminary findings from an environmental scan of state NEMT policies and interviews with stakeholders in six states (Arizona, Connecticut, Georgia, Indiana, Massachusetts, and Texas) and at the federal level.
This presentation described the findings from two additional components of the larger study: analysis of transformed Medicaid statistical information system (T-MSIS) data to describe NEMT utilization and spending, and focus groups with beneficiaries who have used NEMT. Specifically, the presentation included background information on the NEMT benefit and federal requirements, reviewed MACPAC’s analytic plan for this study, and what we have learned to date from our analysis.