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DMAS outlines Member Advisory Committee role, seeks applicants for 2025 terms
Summary
DMAS staff described the Member Advisory Committee’s purpose and impact at a community stakeholder meeting, urged Medicaid members and authorized representatives to apply for openings starting in 2025, and heard testimony from current MAC members about how lived experience has shaped agency communications and policy inputs.
The Department of Medical Assistance Services on Thursday told stakeholders that its Member Advisory Committee exists to center Medicaid recipients’ lived experience in program design and communications and that multiple committee seats will open for two-year terms beginning in 2025.
The MAC, established in 2018 with its first meeting in 2019, gives current Medicaid members and authorized representatives a formal channel to share recommendations directly with agency leadership and the state board, Natalie (DMAS staff) said. "The only requirement is that a member is a current member, and they have a willingness to serve," she said, urging organizations to encourage members to apply.
Why it matters: DMAS credited MAC input with changes ranging from clearer guidance during COVID to website-navigation improvements and said CMS now requires states to have beneficiary advisory committees alongside medical advisory committees. Natalie said DMAS accepts applications year-round, will post agendas and meeting materials to Virginia Town Hall and the DMAS website within a few weeks after meetings, and expects a wave of seat openings at the end of the year.
Members who spoke described concrete reasons they joined. Brian Roche, a MAC member and Medicaid enrollee, said he joined to address what he called an inequitable Medicaid rule and to bring accessibility perspectives tied to blindness and cerebral palsy: "I simply wanted to make some changes with a particular provision of the Medicaid rules... I find it to be a little bit inequitable." Sheila Johnson, who identified herself as a caregiver, said she joined after receiving an email invite and values meeting peers who have shared lived experiences: "I am the caregiver for, as I call him, my BBE, which is the best brother ever."
Practical details: Natalie described the MAC as meeting quarterly (four times a year), providing orientation at the first meeting, and offering technical assistance to states developing similar committees. DMAS said many current members move on to other leadership opportunities and that recruitment in 2024 drew about 400 applications. The agency encouraged interested members and authorized representatives to apply and noted that materials and application links are available on the DMAS website.
The meeting closed with an invitation to submit questions and suggestions for future presentations to the DMAS team; DMAS said it will share follow-up resources with participants.
