May 14, 2019 Medicaid Eligibility Reform: Reasonable Compatibility & Tax Data

Baton Rouge, Louisiana, May 14, 2019 - House Bill 1 of the 2018 Second Extraordinary Legislative Session (HB1) reduced the Louisiana Department of Health’s (LDH or the Department) State Fiscal Year 2019 budget by $20.9 million state general fund to account for “reforms in the Medicaid eligibility process… that will reduce the reasonable compatibility standard from 25 percent to 10 percent and begin the utilization of income tax data as a tool in the eligibility determination process…”

HB1 further directed the Department to “submit monthly reports to the Joint Legislative Committee on the Budget detailing the progress made in the implementation of the reforms, the reductions in expenditures being generated by these changes to the eligibility process by means of financing, the number of cases undergoing additional review due to the reforms, and the number of individuals being denied eligibility each month either on their initial application or annual redetermination attributable to said process changes.”