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House passes bill to simplify Medicaid recertification, extend eligibility window for SSI recipients
Summary
The House approved House Bill 11-62 to simplify medical-assistance redeterminations and allow certain SSI and disability recipients to extend financial eligibility recertification from one year to three years; sponsors said the measure reduces administrative burden and carries no fiscal note.
House members passed House Bill 11-62 on second reading after committee amendments that sponsors said will reduce paperwork for case managers and extend the recertification interval for some disabled beneficiaries.
Representative Frey, presenting the health committee report, said the measure is “an effort to reduce some of that administrative barriers, and cut some of that red tape for our case managers who are taking care of our Medicaid members in the community.” Representative Ferre, the bill sponsor, told members the measure cleans up statutory placement and simplifies lengthy medical-information pages used for eligibility determinations.
The bill, as described on the floor, does two primary things: it simplifies the medical information form used for redeterminations and it allows a three-year financial eligibility certification timeline for people with stable incomes such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI) recipients and certain people on disability. Representative Ferre said the change moves a provision into the “rightful place” in statute and that the corrections removed a fiscal note that otherwise would have applied.
Representative Bradley, speaking as ranking member, said the bill addresses difficulties faced by people with disabilities and older adults who must be recertified, calling the simplification “really a good bill that allows for functional assessment for long term services and supports.” Representative Taggart asked about an earlier fiscal note indicating a $667,000 expenditure for software; Ferre replied the fiscal note is now zero because of the statutory relocation and the three-year extension.
Representative Sirota asked whether the change simply moves costs or delays them; Ferre replied that switching where the statute lives removes a waiver requirement and therefore no cost is associated with the bill as written. On the floor vote the bill passed. The committee report had been adopted earlier and the bill later passed second reading and was ordered to final passage.
Clarifying details discussed on the floor included that the three-year window applies only to people with stable incomes such as SSI and disability, that the medical information page will be shortened, and that other licensed providers will be authorized to sign the form to ease case managers’ workloads. The sponsor characterized the changes as cutting red tape with no fiscal impact as presented to the House.
Votes at the time of the Committee of the Whole report were recorded as the committee report and the bill being passed on second reading; the floor roll-call tally for final passage on the day was not specified in the transcript excerpt.
