DHHS directors outline budget changes, Medicaid savings proposals and potential federal risks

Nathan White, DHHS chief financial officer, and Marissa Henn, deputy commissioner, opened the department’s presentation with a high-level briefing on DHHS’s scope and the complexities of federal matching and maintenance-of-effort requirements that drive much of the Medicaid budget. White and Henn told senators DHHS manages multiple federal funding streams, a public assistance cost allocation plan and numerous programs that interact across divisions.

Henry Lippman, Medicaid director, provided a focused run-through of Medicaid-related provisions in the House budget and related policy bills. Lippman said a few of the most consequential items in the House phase were a proposed children’s Medicaid premium for families above 255% of the federal poverty level, tightening of redetermination and eligibility verification practices (rolling back pandemic-era flexibilities), and changes to the Granite Advantage program that alter the program’s…