II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1082
To apply the Medicaid asset verification program to all applicants for, and
recipients of, medical assistance in all States and territories, and for
other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH14, 2025
Mr. B
ARRASSO(for himself, Mr. KENNEDY, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. WICKER, Ms.
L
UMMIS, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. MARSHALL, Mr. SCOTTof Florida, and
Mr. D
AINES) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and re-
ferred to the Committee on Finance
A BILL
To apply the Medicaid asset verification program to all appli-
cants for, and recipients of, medical assistance in all
States and territories, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Safeguarding Medicaid 4
Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. APPLICATION OF MEDICAID ASSET TEST TO ALL AP-1
PLICANTS FOR, AND RECIPIENTS OF, MED-2
ICAL ASSISTANCE IN ALL STATES AND TERRI-3
TORIES. 4
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1940 of the Social Secu-5
rity Act (42 U.S.C. 1396w) is amended— 6
(1) in subsection (a), by striking paragraph (4); 7
and 8
(2) in subsection (b)(1)(A), by striking ‘‘on the 9
basis of being aged, blind, or disabled’’. 10
(b) R
ULES.—The Secretary of Health and Human 11
Services shall promulgate such rules as are necessary to 12
implement the amendments made by subsection (a). 13
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.— 14
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subject to paragraph (2), 15
the amendments made by subsection (a) shall take 16
effect on the date that is 1 year after the date of 17
enactment of this Act. 18
(2) P
HASE-IN OF IMPLEMENTATION .— 19
(A) I
N GENERAL.—During the 1-year pe-20
riod that begins on the date of enactment of 21
this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human 22
Services shall require States to submit and im-23
plement a plan for an electronic integrated 24
asset verification program that meets the re-25
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•S 1082 IS
quirements of section 1940 of the Social Secu-1
rity Act (as amended by subsection (a)). 2
(B) I
MPLEMENTATION BEFORE EFFECTIVE 3
DATE.—Nothing in this subsection or section 4
1940 of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 5
1396w) shall be construed as prohibiting a 6
State from implementing an asset verification 7
program that meets the requirements of such 8
section (as amended by subsection (a)) in ad-9
vance of the effective date specified under para-10
graph (1). 11
(C) D
ELAY OF EFFECTIVE DATE .—If a 12
State requests a delay of the effective date 13
specified under paragraph (1) on the basis of 14
ongoing economic hardship limitations, as de-15
termined by the chief executive officer of the 16
State, the Secretary of Health and Human 17
Services may delay such effective date for up to 18
365 days. 19
SEC. 3. MEDICAID RESOURCES ELIGIBILITY REQUIRE-20
MENT. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 1902(e)(14)(C) of the So-22
cial Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396a(e)(14)(C)) is amended 23
to read as follows: 24
‘‘(C) R
ESOURCES TEST REQUIREMENT .— 25
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‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—Except as pro-1
vided in clause (iii), notwithstanding any 2
other provision of this title, in the case of 3
an individual with respect to whom a de-4
termination of income eligibility for med-5
ical assistance under the State plan or 6
under any waiver of such plan is required, 7
the State shall also apply a resources eligi-8
bility test that meets the requirement of 9
clause (ii). 10
‘‘(ii) R
EQUIREMENT.—A State re-11
sources eligibility test meets the require-12
ment of this clause if the test precludes eli-13
gibility for any individual whose resources 14
(as determined under section 1613 for pur-15
poses of the supplemental security income 16
program) exceed the maximum amount of 17
resources that an individual may have and 18
obtain benefits under that program, or 19
such amount as the State shall establish. 20
‘‘(iii) N
O EFFECT ON CONTINUOUS 21
ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR PREG -22
NANT AND POSTPARTUM WOMEN OR CHIL -23
DREN.—Nothing in this subparagraph 24
shall affect the application of paragraph 25
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(6), (12), or (16) of this subsection (relat-1
ing to continuous eligibility for pregnant 2
and postpartum women and children under 3
the age of 19).’’. 4
(b) C
ONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—Section 1902(e)(6) 5
of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396a(e)(6)) is 6
amended by inserting ‘‘or resources’’ after ‘‘income’’ each 7
place it appears. 8
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 9
this section shall take effect on the date that is 2 years 10
after the date of enactment of this Act. 11
SEC. 4. REQUIRING CMS TO TRACK STATE ASSET 12
VERIFICATION OF FEDERAL MEDICAID PRO-13
GRAMS. 14
(a) T
RACKINGASSETVERIFICATIONPROGRAMSAV-15
INGS.—Not later than 2 years after the date of the enact-16
ment of this Act, the Secretary of Health and Human 17
Services, acting through the Centers for Medicare & Med-18
icaid Services, shall create a Federal tracking system of 19
the savings in Federal expenditures on the Medicaid pro-20
gram under title XIX of the Social Security Act (42 21
U.S.C. 1396 et seq.) that are associated with the asset 22
verification program requirement added under section 23
2(a). 24
(b) R
EPORTS TOCONGRESS.— 25
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Beginning with the first 1
year that begins on or after the date of enactment 2
of this Act, each State shall submit to the Secretary, 3
as part of the triennial review required under the 4
Payment Error Rate Measurement program of the 5
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, a report, 6
that the Secretary shall make publicly available, on 7
the activities of the State relating to eligibility deter-8
minations and renewals conducted during the year 9
for which the report is submitted, and which in-10
cludes, with respect to such year, the following infor-11
mation: 12
(A) The number of eligibility renewals ini-13
tiated, and asset checks conducted, beneficiaries 14
renewed on a total and ex parte basis. 15
(B) The number of asset checks conducted 16
out of the number of new applications initiated 17
and the number of applicants determined eligi-18
ble after such checks. 19
(C) Such other information related to eligi-20
bility determinations and renewals during such 21
month, as identified by the Secretary. 22
(2) A
PPLICATION TO TERRITORIES .—For pur-23
poses of applying the reporting requirements of 24
paragraph (1) to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, 25
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Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American 1
Samoa, the Secretary shall promulgate regulations 2
to modify such requirements so that they are similar 3
to the reporting requirements that apply under such 4
paragraph to the 50 States and the District of Co-5
lumbia but are reasonable given the circumstances of 6
each such territory. 7
(c) E
NFORCEMENT AND CORRECTIVEACTION.— 8
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may assess a 9
State’s compliance with all Federal requirements ap-10
plicable to eligibility determinations, redetermina-11
tions, and Medicaid payment error rate measure-12
ment (PERM) reporting requirements, and, if the 13
Secretary determines that a State did not comply 14
with any such requirements during the 180-day pe-15
riod preceding the assessment, the Secretary may re-16
quire the State to submit and implement a corrective 17
action plan in accordance with paragraph (2). 18
(2) C
ORRECTIVE ACTION PLAN .—A State that 19
receives a written notice from the Secretary that the 20
Secretary has determined that the State is not in 21
compliance with a requirement described in para-22
graph (1) shall— 23
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(A) not later than 90 days after receiving 1
such notice, submit a corrective action plan to 2
the Secretary; 3
(B) not later than 90 days after the date 4
on which such corrective action plan is sub-5
mitted to the Secretary, receive approval or dis-6
approval for the plan from the Secretary; and 7
(C) begin implementation of such correc-8
tive action plan not later than 90 days after 9
such approval. 10
Æ
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