The AAMC joined a group letter with over 100 other organizations on July 10 organized by the so-called “Big 7” — major organizations made up of state and local government officials, including the National Governor’s Association — urging congressional leadership to support an enhanced Federal Medicaid Assistance Percentage (FMAP) and to rescind the proposed Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Regulation (MFAR) in the next COVID-19 supplemental bill.
The letter highlights that state and local governments are experiencing budget shortfalls due to the current pandemic, which will make it “difficult to provide adequate health care services to their residents.” The groups thanked Congress and the administration for providing a 6.2 percentage point FMAP increase in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act [see Washington Highlights, March 20] and “urge Congress to provide an additional FMAP increase of at least 5.8 percentage points, to be retroactive to January 1, 2020, and remain until Sept. 30, 2021, regardless of economic conditions.” The letter recommends that the FMAP increase should not be reduced until the national unemployment rate falls below 5%.
Additionally, the letter urges Congress to rescind the proposed MFAR, which would change state Medicaid program financing and supplemental payments for providers [see Washington Highlights, Jan. 31]. It states, “We believe this rule would reduce the ability of states and localities to finance the non-federal share of Medicaid, resulting in a reduction in federal Medicaid funding for the public health and hospital systems and destabilize them at a time when healthcare and public health services are needed most.”