Washington, D.C. – On May 20, 2020, the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals summarily affirmed the lower court opinion in Philbrick v. Azar, vacating the Secretary of Health and Human Services’ approval of a restrictive Section 1115 waiver from New Hampshire. The approved waiver would have imposed work requirements as a condition of Medicaid eligibility and ended retroactive Medicaid coverage. The Court’s brief per curiam opinion noted that the case was controlled by its earlier decision in Gresham v. Azar.
With the decision by the DC Circuit, state 1115 waivers for work requirements are not in effect in any state, due either to litigation or the state deciding to postpone the implementation. And during the COVID emergency, a state would lose enhanced federal matching funds if it began terminating eligibility due to work requirements.
