Texas Medicaid Issues Facing the 86th Legislature

This brief provides an overview of Texas Medicaid issues to be addressed in the upcoming legislative session. These include the Medicaid shortfall affecting the current biennium, a number of Medicaid Managed Care issues, Medicaid expansion to adults up to 138 of the federal poverty level (FPL), and the FY 2020-21 Legislative Appropriation Request (LAR) for Medicaid. Note that Health and Human Service agency Transformation has consolidated most of Medicaid programming into one agency - the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC). I. Medicaid Shortfall: Current Biennium. As indicated in HHSC’s FY 20-21 LAR, the agency will run out of Medicaid funds by May of Fiscal Year 2019. Therefore, a supplemental appropriations request includes the following unmet needs for the Medicaid program for the current biennium: Medicaid acute care services $1527.1 million Medicaid long term care services $82.7 Medicaid other medical services $137.9 Budget drivers creating this su