CONGRESSMEN PUSH HHS TO RESPOND TO STATES’ PPACA QUESTIONS
In an October 4 letter to Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee renewed their request that HHS respond promptly to all outstanding questions from states regarding implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). Reps. Fred Upton (R-MI) and Joe Pitts (R-PA), the Chairman of the Committee and Chair of its health subcommittee, respectively, had sent a similar letter to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 20.
The new letter requested that HHS respond by no later than October 15. The letter said that “In the months since the Supreme Court’s ruling that PPACA’s mandatory expansion of Medicaid was unconstitutional, governors and legislatures have been left to navigate alone the regulatory maze created by the absence of guidance from your Department. Questions from States have been answered with vague and often dismissive responses, creating regulatory uncertainty that has crippled the ability of states and health providers to plan for the future.”
In July, the Republican Governors Association and the National Association of Medicaid Directors sent separate letters to HHS with more than 50 specific questions regarding PPACA’s mandated state healthcare exchanges and expansion of the Medicaid program. HHS and CMS have answered some, but not all, of the questions, and officials have stated that further guidance will be released before the exchanges and Medicaid expansion go into effect in January 2014.