Montana State Legislature

Agency Oversight: DPHHS

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Agency Oversight: DPHHS

Materials related to the committee's agency oversight duties or presented to the committee by the Department of Public Health and Human Services as part of the oversight responsibilities are listed below by topic area or meeting date. Topics cover:

  • agency legislation;
  • the provider rate study conducted for the department during the interim; and
  • the agency's applications for various Medicaid waivers.

Agency Legislation

State law and legislative rules require interim committees to review the legislation that state agencies plan to introduce during the next legislative session and allows the committees to authorize the early drafting and pre-introduction of those bills. The committee typically takes up that review at its final meeting of the interim.

Provider Rate Study and Cost Reporting Plan

The 2021 Legislature appropriated funds for DPHHS to conduct a study of Medicaid reimbursement rates. The agency hired Guidehouse Inc., LLC, to conduct the study. Preliminary information from the study was reported at the committee's June 2022, and the final report was presented in  August 2022. The initial report prompted the committee to write to the governor, asking that the administration take immediate action to increase provider rates.

The final report includes recommendations related to House Bill 155, also from 2021. That legislation required DPHHS to analyze Medicaid expenditure data in order to allow the Legislature to make better decisions about the costs of providing Medicaid-covered services.

Section 1115 Waiver Proposals

DPHHS is required, under 53-2-215, MCA, to present proposals for Section 1115 Medicaid waivers to the committee "for review and comment at a public hearing" before the proposal is submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for approval. The department presented three proposals to the committee for review in August 2021:

  • a proposed new waiver for the Healing and Ending Addiction Through Recovery and Treatment (HEART) initiative for behavioral health;
  • an amendment to the Health and Economic Livelihood Partnership (HELP) Act waiver that would end 12-month continuous eligibility for the Medicaid expansion population; and
  • an amendment to the Waiver for Additional Services and Populations (WASP) to end 12-month continuous eligibility and cost-sharing requirements for low-income parents and adults with Severe and Disabling Mental Illness. 

Committee members decided at the August meeting that individual members or groups of members could submit comments to DPHHS and CMS but that the committee would not, as a whole, submit comment on the waiver applications. 

The following materials pertain to the HEART, HELP, and WASP waiver applications.

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