Here are four things to know about the issue.
1. Gov. Pence has accused the federal government of hiring a biased contractor to evaluate Indiana’s alternative Medicaid program, known as Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0.
2. Under Indiana’s program, participants are required to make a monthly contribution to their health savings account based on income that can be rolled over if not used for healthcare. But Gov. Pence claims the Urban Institute, which was among the evaluators chosen to assess Indiana’s plan, has previously had doubts of using the health savings account model for participants, according to the report.
3. In a December letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, Gov. Pence asked the federal government to drop its review since Indiana’s alternative Medicaid program has already been evaluated by a state-hired contractor, according to the report. However, Secretary Burwell assured the governor that the federal evaluation will not duplicate the state’s analysis. According to the report, she also contends in her response that the federal evaluation is important in establishing whether other states should be allowed to adopt Indiana’s model, and that CMS followed federal rules for choosing the federal evaluators, who assure impartiality.
4. Gov. Pence said he is “wholly unsatisfied” with that response, according to the report, and will ask Congress to review CMS’ vendor selection process.
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