League of Women Voters of Texas Issues Public Comment on HHS Proposed Rule

WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 -- Grace Chimene, president of League of Women Voters of Texas, Austin, has issued a public comment on the Department of Health and Human Services proposed rule entitled "Securing Updated and Necessary Statutory Evaluations Timely". The comment was written on Dec. 4, 2020, and posted on Dec. 8, 2020:

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The League of Women Voters of Texas is deeply concerned about the health of children in Texas and in the United States. Therefore we am very disturbed about the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposed rule, "Securing Updated and Necessary Statutory Evaluations Timely" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations Rule"), and I appreciate this opportunity to provide comments. The proposed rule would retroactively impose an expiration provision on most HHS regulations, and establish "assessment" and "review" procedures to determine which, if any, regulations should be retained or revised. This would create tremendous administrative burden for HHS and could cause major harm to Medicaid and CHIP, which are essential programs ensuring health care services for children. We also believe that the 30-day comment period is far too short to allow sufficient review of a rule with such broad scope and potentially harmful effects. We urge HHS to immediately withdraw this proposed rule.

The proposed rule would create tremendous administrative burden for HHS that would divert resources from critical work, including efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic. HHS itself estimates that it would need to assess at least 12,400 regulations that are over 10 years old, requiring the full-time effort of at least 90 employees.

Regulations play an important role in implementing HHS policies and programs including safety net programs such as Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). These programs provide health coverage for over 36.6 million children. Texas has the highest rate of uninsured children in the United States, and Medicaid and CHIP are essential components of coverage for hundreds of thousands of children. A strong regulatory framework provides Texas the clarity it needs to run these programs on a day-to-day basis. It also gives providers and managed care plans guidance as to their obligations, and it explains to families the benefits they receive. The Regulations Rule would create legal uncertainty regarding the validity and enforceability of regulations throughout the review process.

For example, multiple insurance affordability programs including Medicaid and CHIP rely on regulations at 42 C.F.R. Sec. 435.603 to determine financial eligibility using Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) methodologies. If this regulation were to simply disappear, programs would be free to redefine MAGI household and income counting rules, with no standards, consistency, or accountability. This could lead to real harm to the millions of children who rely on those programs.

The Regulations Rule is an unfortunate attempt to eliminate duly promulgated regulations, by retroactively imposing an arbitrary end date. This rule is unnecessary, will cause confusion in current Medicaid and CHIP, and will detract HHS from critical issues like the COVID-19 pandemic, to undertake this time-consuming process. We urge you to withdraw the proposed rule immediately. Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this important issue. If you have questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Grace Chimene

President

League of Women Voters of Texas

[email protected]

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The proposed rule can be viewed at: https://beta.regulations.gov/document/HHS-OS-2020-0012-0001

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