HHS Guidance Threatens Recent State Medicaid Provider Taxes (1)

Ambiguities in a Trump administration guidance involving fresh prohibitions on new or increased provider taxes in Medicaid are leaving policy watchers concerned that the government could also target states with existing taxes.

The letter to state Medicaid agencies from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services lays out preliminary guidance on the implementation of a new statutory restriction on provider taxes, which allows states to increase their state revenue in order to draw down additional supplemental Medicaid payments from the federal government.

The guidance concerns provisions included in Republicans’ sweeping tax-and-spending law passed earlier this year.

Under the provisions, the ...