Joe Moser, a key architect of Indiana’s alternative Medicaid expansion program has stepped down from his role as the state’s Medicaid director.
Moser was appointed by then-Gov. Mike Pence in 2013 and oversaw the care of more than 1.5 million Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program enrollees.
Moser told Modern Healthcare he has no plans to work with the Trump administration, but would be open to that possibility. He decided to leave Indiana’s Medicaid agency in order to pursue new opportunities.
“We know [Moser] will be working to improve the lives of the underserved in his next endeavor,” a spokesman for Medicaid Health Plans of America said.
Allison Matters Taylor, former general counsel for the Indiana’s Medicaid agency, has been named interim director.
As state Medicaid director, Moser oversaw the work of Seema Verma, who was then a consultant for the state’s Medicaid expansion program, Healthy Indiana 2.0, and now is CMS administrator. He also worked with Brian Neale when Neale was the healthcare policy director for Pence; Neale is now Medicaid director at the CMS.
“(Moser) did provide splendid leadership in launching and guiding HIP 2.0.,” said Carl Ellison, president and CEO at Indiana Minority Health Coalition. “We remain thankful for the Medicaid expansion that has been extremely beneficial for the state and for minority populations that disproportionately lacked health coverage prior to the expansion.”
Moser was a vocal opponent of overregulation from the CMS, including a major rulemaking released in 2016 to overhaul managed Medicaid programs.
As a Medicaid director, Moser advocated states receiving maximum flexibility to run their programs and supported the House GOP’s American Health Care Act provisions to change Medicaid to a per capita cap system. Moser said he’s hopeful the Senate’s version of the healthcare reform bill will go further and allow states to alter their programs further in the face of reduced funding.
As states face an expected reduction in federal funding, they should have a greater say on which medications their programs cover, a change that would require congressional approval, Moser said.
States should also be able to change some eligibility requirements or provider rates as funding drops, he said.
“My concern with the House bill is that there is a lack of flexibility provided to states to deal with the budget impasse that would result in capping the federal allotment,” Moser said.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that capping Medicaid funding will result in cuts of as much as $880 billion over 10 years.