Ohio Medicaid Director Walks Lawmakers Through HR 1 Changes, Cites Savings and Implementation Challenges

Scott Partika, the newly appointed director of the Ohio Department of Medicaid, told a joint session of the House and Senate Medicaid committees that federal legislation known as HR 1 will trigger major operational and financing changes for the state's Medicaid program.

"HR 1 is, most likely one of the largest overhauls of how the federal government administers the Medicaid program in quite some time," Partika said in his prepared remarks, summarizing slides that laid out compliance deadlines, projected savings and implementation challenges.

Partika said HR 1 requires states to strengthen duplicate-enrollment detection and to have a process in place by Jan. 1, 2027, with a federal system expected by October 2029. He told lawmakers the department received a large federal data file identifying likely duplicate enrollments and that Ohio estimates roughly $11,000,000 in state-share savings next fiscal year from that work, with potential future state savings rising to tens of millions.

The director outlined a set of other federal changes that will affect Ohio's program. Adult-expansion eligibility redeterminations will be required every six months beginning Jan. 1, 2027, instead of annually; Partika estimated that change could yield about $40,000,000 in annual state savings,…