Government
CMS issues final Medicaid citizenship rule
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 6, 2007
The federal government issued its final rule on Medicaid citizenship and identity documentation last month. Children of mothers eligible for Medicaid are assumed to be eligible, too. Mothers will have to prove their children's citizenship when the children need to requalify for Medicaid. Those are two of the 12 modifications included in the regulation, issued last month by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Under the interim rule, issued in July, 2006 newborns were not eligible for Medicaid without citizenship documentation.
Other modifications allow additional documentation to prove citizenship and identity, such as religious records and early school records. CMS received more than 1,400 public comments about the interim rule after it was released.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/08/06/gvbf0806.htm.
