04-26056. Federal Financial Participation in State Assistance Expenditures; Federal Matching Shares for Medicaid, the State Children's Health Insurance Program, and Aid To Needy Aged, Blind, or Disabled Persons for October 1, 2005 Through September ...

AGENCY:

Office of the Secretary, DHHS.

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The Federal Medical Assistance Percentages and Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentages for Fiscal Year 2006 have been calculated pursuant to the Social Security Act (the Act). These percentages will be effective from October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006. This notice announces the calculated “Federal Medical Assistance Percentages” and “Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentages” that we will use in determining the amount of Federal matching for State medical assistance (Medicaid) and State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) expenditures, and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Contingency Funds, the federal share of Child Support Enforcement collections, Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the Child Care and Development Fund, Foster Care Title IV-E Maintenance payments, and Adoption Assistance payments. The table gives figures for each of the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Programs under title XIX of the Act exist in each jurisdiction; programs under titles I, X, and XIV operate only in Guam and the Virgin Islands; while a program under title XVI (Aid to the Aged, Blind, or Disabled) operates only in Puerto Rico. Programs under title XXI began operating in fiscal year 1998. The percentages in this notice apply to State expenditures for most medical services and medical insurance services, and assistance payments for certain social services. The statute provides separately for Federal matching of administrative costs.

Sections 1905(b) and 1101(a)(8)(B) of the Act require the Secretary of Health and Human Services to publish the Federal Medical Assistance Percentages each year. The Secretary is to figure the percentages, by formulas in sections 1905(b) and 1101(a)(8)(B), from the Department of Commerce's statistics of average income per person in each State and in the Nation as a whole. The percentages are within the upper and lower limits given in section 1905(b) of the Act. The percentages to be applied to the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands are specified in statute, and thus are not based on the statutory formula that determines the percentages for the 50 states.

The “Federal Medical Assistance Percentages” are for Medicaid. Section 1905(b) of the Act specifies the formula for calculating Federal Medical Assistance Percentages as follows:

“Federal medical assistance percentage” for any State shall be 100 per centum less the State percentage; and the State percentage shall be that percentage which bears the same ratio to 45 per centum as the square of the per capita income of such State bears to the square of the per capita income of the continental United States (including Alaska) and Hawaii; except that (1) the Federal medical assistance percentage shall in no case be less than 50 per centum or more than 83 per centum, (2) the Federal medical assistance percentage for Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa shall be 50 per centum.

A provision in the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 modified the formula to calculate the percentages to be applied to Alaska for purposes of titles XIX and XXI of the Act for fiscal years 2001 through 2005. For Alaska only, the formula required dividing the state's three-year average per capita income by 1.05 instead of 1.0. This provision has not been extended, and therefore the calculation for Alaska reverts to the standard formula.

In addition, section 4725 of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 amended section 1905(b) to provide that the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage for the District of Columbia for purposes of titles XIX and XXI shall be 70 percent. For the District of Columbia, we note under the table of Federal Medical Assistance Percentages the rate that applies in certain other programs calculated using the formula otherwise applicable, and the rate that applies in certain other programs pursuant to section 1118 of the Social Security Act.

Section 2105(b) of the Act specifies the formula for calculating the Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentages as follows:

The “enhanced FMAP”, for a State for a fiscal year, is equal to the Federal medical assistance percentage (as defined in the first sentence of section 1905(b)) for the State increased by a number of percentage points equal to 30 percent of the number of percentage points by which (1) such Federal medical assistance percentage for the State, is less than (2) 100 percent; but in no case shall the enhanced FMAP for a State exceed 85 percent.

The “Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentages” are for use in the State Children's Health Insurance Program under Title XXI, and in the Medicaid program for certain children for expenditures for medical assistance described in sections 1905(u)(2) and 1905(u)(3) of the Act. There is no specific requirement to publish the Enhanced Federal Medical Assistance Percentages. We include them in this notice for the convenience of the States.

DATES:

The percentages listed will be effective for each of the 4 quarter-year periods in the period beginning October 1, 2005 and ending September 30, 2006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Carrie Becker or Robert Stewart, Office of Health Policy, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Room 447D—Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Avenue, SW., Washington, DC 20201, [phone].

(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Program Nos. 93.558: TANF Contingency Funds; 93.563: Child Support Enforcement; 93-596: Child Care Mandatory and Matching Funds of the Child Care and Development Fund; 93.658: Foster Care Title IV-E; 93.659: Adoption Assistance; 93.769: Ticket-to-Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (TWWIIA) Demonstrations to Maintain Independence and Employment; 93.778: Medical Assistance Program; 93.767: State Children's Health Insurance Program)

Dated: November 18, 2004.

Tommy G. Thompson,

Secretary of Health and Human Services.