Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized updates to Medicaid regulations that will make it easier for millions of low-income older adults and people with disabilities to get help with their Medicare costs. The new Streamlining Medicare Savings Program Eligibility Determination and Enrollment final rule simplifies the burdensome processes for applying and verifying income and assets for the Medicare Savings Programs (MSPs) across states.

Only about half of people eligible for MSPs are enrolled, so reducing the paperwork burden and streamlining the enrollment rules will help thousands of older adults get this financial help for the first time. The changes will also help the millions of people who currently have MSPs retain coverage during redeterminations and renewals.

Justice in Aging has long been advocating for simplifying Medicaid eligibility and enrollment and wrote comments in support of the proposed Streamlining rule last year. We are excited to see these improvements to MSP enrollment finalized and will continue to advocate for states to implement them quickly.

Highlights of the final Streamlining MSPs rule include: 

• Automatically enrolling many people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) into the Qualified Medicare Beneficiary (QMB) to ensure they get help with Medicare premiums and cost sharing.
• Maximizing states’ use of data from the Medicare Part D low-income subsidy (LIS) program to enroll people with LIS into MSPs and aligning MSP and LIS definitions of “family size.”
• Easing the burden on MSP applicants and enrollees to provide documentation of income and assets.
• Ensuring QMB enrollment for people with Part A premiums is effective when Medicare entitlement begins.

Learn more about the new rule in CMS’s press release and stay tuned for additional Justice in Aging resources on what the new rules mean for older adults in the coming weeks.