NJ Spotlight published the following article on 2/21/2014. To read the full article, click here.

NJ Loses Nearly $8 Million in Standoff Over Affordable Care Act Funds

Andrew Kitchenman | February 21, 2014

New Jersey lost a $7.67 million federal Affordable Care Act grant yesterday as state and federal officials failed to reach agreement on how the money could be spent.

The crux of the dispute appeared to be over Medicaid costs. While the state largely wanted to use the money to support expansion of the state’s Medicaid program, federal officials maintained that the grant must be used more directly to support the ACA insurance marketplace.

The state received the grant in February 2012 for use in building a state insurance exchange. After Gov. Chris Christie announced a year later that the state would opt for a federal insurance marketplace, rather than a state-run one, state and federal officials began discussions about how the money could be spent.

Yesterday was the deadline for the state to come up with an acceptable plan for using the money.

The state wanted specifically to devote the bulk of the money to support a call center answering questions about New Jersey FamilyCare, the state’s largest Medicaid-funded program; advising residents with chronic infectious diseases about the best health coverage options available to them; and building the computer connections to exchange state data with the federal marketplace

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