Rep. Cammack Introduces Bill To Prohibit HHS Secretary From Finalizing 80/20 Rule For Home & Community-Based Services (HCBS)

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Today, Congresswoman Kat Cammack introduced a bill to prevent the Department of Health and Human Services from finalizing the "80/20" rule and to prevent the Department from promulgating, implementing, enforcing, or giving effect to any substantially similar rule requiring a minimum percentage of Medicaid spending on home and community-based services (HCBS) providers be spent on compensation for direct workers.

The "80/20" rule, also called the "Medicaid Program; Ensuring Access to Medicaid Services (or the Access Rule) (88 FR 27960)", would require, among other provisions, a minimum of 80 percent of all Medicaid reimbursements for HCBS to be directly spent on compensation of the workforce and would limit no more than 20 percent of reimbursements to be applied to administrative and overhead costs.

An estimated six million Americans rely on regular access to long-term services and supports (LTSS) and HCBS, a vital array of services needed by seniors and people with disabilities to meet their everyday needs. By the end of the decade, this number is expected to rise by another one million, threatening to exacerbate a shortage of LTSS providers.

Currently, the total number of LTSS providers falls well short of the needed demand, with hundreds of thousands of Americans on waiting lists just for Medicaid coverage of these services.

"The Biden administration's proposed '80/20' rule would require force states to spend billions in new unfunded mandates or force HCBS providers to reduce access to care for those who need it most," said Rep. Cammack. "Because of top-down demands from the Biden administration, home care agencies can't keep up with staffing levels and overall care levels while complying with this rule. It's putting millions of Americans at a sharp disadvantage and only exacerbating the challenging issues we already face."

Read the text of the bill here.

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