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Special Message from

 

Beverly Mackereth

Secretary of Public Welfare 

 

 

Dear Stakeholders,

 

I wanted to provide you with a quick update of what has been going on at DPW and in the commonwealth regarding the Healthy Pennsylvania plan.

I am proud to announce that today Governor Corbett submitted our final waiver application to the federal government. In order to provide affordable, quality health care services to Pennsylvania's most vulnerable citizens, Pennsylvania must reform its Medicaid program. Our current Medicaid program continues to grow and requires substantial new state revenue on an ongoing basis.

Our team traveled the commonwealth and hosted seven public hearings and two webinars. We also accepted public comment on the Healthy Pennsylvania proposal and ended up with more than 1,000 comments to our plan. These comments were used to frame our final waiver application that was submitted to the federal government for their review today. This 1115 Demonstration waiver application would increase health care access for more than 500,000 Pennsylvanians.

The federal government will have a 30 day public comment period and will then begin negotiations with us for a final waiver. It's important to know that we have had regular communications with the federal government since April of 2013 and will continue our discussions throughout this process. We are anticipating a January 2015 start of our plan.

You may also find all of the most recent, updated information on Healthy Pennsylvania at www.dpw.state.pa.us/healthypa
. Thank you for taking time to learn more about Healthy Pennsylvania and for all of your hard work in the last few months. This plan is something to be proud of and wouldn't be possible without each of you.

 

Beverly Mackereth

Secretary of Public Welfare

 

The Office of Child Development and Early Learning (OCDEL) promotes opportunities for all Pennsylvania children and families by building systems and providing supports that help ensure access to high quality child and family services.

 

Find more about Quality Early Learning in Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania Department of Education

Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare

Pennsylvania Keys to Quality

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