Senate Passes Medicaid Extenders

The U.S. Senate has approved legislation to extend certain Medicaid policies following House approval last week, reports Politico Pro . Included in the bill is a nearly three-month extension of spousal impoverishment rules to allow married couples to guard certain assets while seeking coverage for home- and community-based services. It also features $112 million for an approximately three-month extension of the Money Follows the Person demonstration that helps state Medicaid programs switch older adults and people with chronic illnesses back into their communities. Both the House and Senate had passed the extensions in the last session, but in different proposals that were never reconciled or signed into law. Last month, the Senate folded the extenders into the continuing resolution, but the partial government shutdown over border wall funding delayed the vote.