February 25,2004

Grassley on CMS Withdrawal of Medicaid Budgeting Policy

M E M O R A N D U M

To: Reporters and Editors
Re: Medicaid budgeting policy
Da: Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Committee on Finance, today made the followingcomment on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ withdrawal of emergency revisionsto the budgeting and expenditure form submitted by states known as CMS-37. CMS had announcedthe revisions with only 24 hours for public consideration.

“I commend the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for withdrawing the emergencyrevisions to the budgeting and expenditure form submitted by states known as CMS-37. Introducingmore prospective review into budgeting is a promising idea. I welcome efforts to fight fraud. Still,I’m disappointed by the chain of events leading up to this point. We need an open, public processwhen considering changes in the Medicaid federal and state partnership. I hope CMS will be carefulabout this in the future. Turning around a policy with only 24 hours of public consideration shouldhappen only in the most extreme emergencies. I’m not sure this qualified as an extreme emergency.”