MACPAC Releases March 2025 Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP 

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) released its March 2025 Report to Congress (PDF). This report contains three chapters that review hospital payment policies for safety-net hospitals and focus on improving the managed care external quality review process, improving timely access to Home and Community Based Services (HCBS), and reducing the administrative burden for states and the federal government for HCBS programs.   

The first chapter focuses on improving the managed care external quality review process, in which MACPAC issued three recommendations intended to improve transparency and usability of findings included in the external quality review annual technical reports. The second chapter focuses on eligibility and enrollment processes for HCBS programs and makes a recommendation for guidance on provisional plans of care. Lastly, the third chapter includes an analysis of federal administrative requirements for HCBS programs and recommends that the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services increase the renewal period for HCBS programs operating under Section 1915(c) waivers and Section 1915(i) state plan amendments from five years to 10 years.