Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver Watch: A Closer Look at Recent Approvals to Address Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN)

(By Elizabeth Hinton and Amaya Diana for The Kaiser Family Foundation Published: Mar 04, 2024)

In December 2022, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a Section 1115 demonstration waiver opportunity to expand the tools available to states to address enrollee health-related social needs (or “HRSN”). In November 2023, CMS released a detailed Medicaid and CHIP HRSN Framework accompanied by an Informational Bulletin (CIB). CMS defines health-related social needs as an individual’s unmet, adverse social conditions (e.g., housing instability, homelessness, nutrition insecurity) that contribute to poor health and are a result of underlying social determinants of health (SDOH). CMS outlines federal guardrails and requirements attached to the new demonstration opportunity (e.g., expenditure limits, service delivery requirements, and monitoring and evaluation requirements). CMS indicates broadening the availability of HRSN services is “expected to promote coverage and access to care, improve health outcomes, reduce health disparities, and create long-term, more cost-effective alternatives or supplements to traditional medical services.” While health programs like Medicaid can play a supporting role, CMS stresses the new HRSN initiatives are not designed to replace other federal, state, and local social service programs but rather to complement and coordinate with these efforts. And, the amount of funding allocated to HRSN programs is modest as a share Medicaid spending in states with approved waivers. Continue reading here…

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