The Medicaid and CHIP Payment Access Commission (MACPAC) met on December 11, 2025 spending nearly three hours on HR 1’s community engagement requirements.
Content was broken out over three panels. On the first panel, MACPAC policy staff, Melinda Becker Roach and Janice Llanos-Velazquez, provided an overview and key implementation considers relating to the work requirements section of HR 1. Caprice Knapp, Principal Deputy Director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP was joined for the second panel by Lindsey Browning, Deputy Executive Director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD), to provide insights into how CMS and states are thinking about implementation of work requirements and the law’s short timelines.
Both CMS and NAMD heavily stressed the importance of and reliance on technology systems and data matching to optimize state programs. Costs, timing, and unintended consequences were areas of focus often repeated. During their final conversation commissioners invited MACPAC staff back to answer questions and tie up loose ends from Ms. Knapp and Ms. Browning. Commissioners expressed ongoing interest in community engagement requirements and states’ progress in the coming months.
More on MACPAC, including presentations, transcripts, and information on future meetings is available on their website.
