APNewsBreak: Indiana Medicaid waiver delayed

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indiana's efforts to expand Medicaid using the Healthy Indiana Plan are being pushed back because the state never held public hearings on the proposal.

Gov. Mike Pence submitted the waiver request to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last month without holding the public hearings required by law. Federal regulators kicked the waiver back to the state in a Feb. 25 letter from CMS. The letter was forwarded to The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The state has scheduled a pair of public hearings next week.

A spokeswoman for Pence was not immediately available for comment Wednesday afternoon.

Pence asked CMS to allow Indiana to expand Medicaid using the state-run Healthy Indiana Plan. He has argued that traditional Medicaid is "broken" and fraught with "waste, corruption and abuse."