Work Requirement Removed from HIP Program
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Biden Administration says Hoosiers on the Healthy Indiana Plan can no longer lose their Medicaid health coverage for failing to look for work or take part in community service. Our partners at The Times of Northwest Indiana report the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has revoked the state’s authorization to require able-bodied, adult HIP members to work, search for a job or participate in community service as a condition of coverage.
According to a letter from Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, director of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Indiana’s HIP employment mandate “risks significant coverage losses and harm to beneficiaries” and does “not promote the objectives of the Medicaid program.”
Indiana’s HIP program was designed in 2015, as an alternative to traditional Medicaid expansion. The state submitted the plan for federal approval after Governor Eric Holcomb took office in 2017.
“We’ll continue to support the health and well-being of Hoosiers, and our participants will receive much needed job training and career support to help them transition from Medicaid to full employment,” said Holcomb. “With our growing economy, we need every able Hoosier to join the workforce.”
The publication says the HIP work mandate has been on hold since November 2019, initially due to legal challenges, but later because of the COVID-19 pandemic.