(a) The agency's payments must be consistent with efficiency, economy, and quality of care and sufficient to enlist enough providers so that services under the plan are available to beneficiaries at least to the extent that those services are available to the general population. In reviewing payment sufficiency, states are required to consider, prior to the submission of any state plan amendment that proposes to reduce or restructure Medicaid service payment rates:

(1) The data collected, and the analysis performed, under §447.203.

(2) Input from beneficiaries, providers and other affected stakeholders on beneficiary access to the affected services and the impact that the proposed rate change will have, if any, on continued service access. The state should maintain a record of the public input and how it responded to such input.

(b) The state must submit to CMS with any such proposed state plan amendment affecting payment rates:

(1) Its most recent access monitoring review plan performed under §447.203(b)(6) for the services at issue;

(2) An analysis of the effect of the change in payment rates on access; and

(3) A specific analysis of the information and concerns expressed in input from affected stakeholders.

(c) CMS may disapprove a proposed state plan amendment affecting payment rates if the state does not include in its submission the supporting documentation described in paragraph (b) of this section, for failure to document compliance with statutory access requirements. Any such disapproval would follow the procedures described at part 430 Subpart B of this title.

(d) To remedy an access deficiency, CMS may take a compliance action using the procedures described at §430.35 of this chapter.

[80 FR 67612, Nov. 2, 2015]