Notes from The Center on Law and Poverty who attended the session.
Hi everyone,
This Tuesday, CMS held a daylong, face-to-face consultation with tribal, pueblo, and IHS leadership at the Albuquerque USDA offices about Centennial Care. Kitty Marx and Robert Nelb (NM Project Officer) were present from the Baltimore office, and Suzette Seng and others were present from the Dallas office. The meeting was facilitated by Ken Lucero from the AIPC. After a long caucus (spurned by a motion by Jemez, Kewa and my own meddling), leadership presented the following unanimous, non-negotiable list of demands to CMS:
2. Retention of the fee-for-service option for Native Americans regardless of where they obtain services
3. No elimination of retroactive coverage
With the permission of Cindy Mann, Kitty Marx stated that they will present the list to HSD at a meeting already scheduled for December 17th, and will meet with tribal leadership again by phone on January 7th. When asked, Kitty confirmed that the state will not have a decision on the waiver by December 31st, and that they will not be able to award any MCO contracts until a final decision on the waiver and the contracts has been made by CMS. Kitty stressed that the state’s deadline has no authority.
So, thanks to some very hard work on the part of tribal advocates, we might still win!
I’ve attached the following handouts from the meeting:
1. CMS’ October questions to HSD about the waiver (non-public and incomplete)2. CMS’ power point presentation about the Centennial Care waiver
3. HSD’s amusing tale of a day in the life of a Native American enrolled in Centennial Care submitted to CMS
4. CMS’ model addendum for tribal health providers to incorporate in their contracts with Qualified Health Plans (this is more relevant to the Exchange than Medicaid, but could be incorporated into Centennial Care MCO contracts as well)
Good stuff!
Q
Quela Robinson
Staff Attorney
New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty
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