After two years of waiting for a response, the state has learned it may be forced to close enrollment for the 42,000-plus people in the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) beginning next year.
Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) Secretary Michael Gargano recently received notification from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, offering to approve only a one-year extension for HIP, to December 31, 2013. CMS failed to approve a multi-year extension for HIP and declined to respond to the state’s questions about utilizing HIP to serve Hoosiers who may be eligible under a Medicaid expansion if the state decides to do so in 2014.