Can Medicaid Survive a $911 Billion Cut? Verlon Johnson on What Happens Next | The Policy Stack

Click here for more: https://shorturl.at/56lNv Medicaid covers more than 70 million Americans, and it just went through the biggest change to its financing since it was created. In this episode of The Policy Stack, host Lisa Bari talks with Verlon Johnson, EVP and Chief Government and Corporate Affairs Officer at Acentra Health, chair of MACPAC (the commission that advises Congress on Medicaid), and a veteran of more than 30 years at CMS. The 2025 reconciliation law cut an estimated $911 billion in federal Medicaid spending over ten years. It introduced work requirements (technically community engagement requirements), shortened eligibility renewals to every six months, narrowed the definition of medical frailty, and restricted how states can use provider taxes. Many of these changes take effect January 1, 2027, which means states are now racing to implement them. Verlon brings a rare vantage point across the federal, state, and technology sides of the program. She and Lisa work through what implementation actually requires: redefining eligibility business rules, coordinating with vendor partners, retraining the eligibility workforce, standing up appeals processes fast enough that people are not left without coverage for months, and using ex parte (automated) renewals so eligible people are not dropped over paperwork. They also dig into where AI and automation genuinely help. As Verlon puts it, data does not improve health, but better decisions do, and prior authorization is one area ripe for automation: when a claim clearly matches the coverage rules, approval should happen nearly automatically, with humans staying in the loop wherever a decision could go against a patient. That view lines up with a conviction we hold at Innovaccer. The point of making healthcare operations more autonomous is not to remove people from the work, but to take the routine, rules-based work off their plates so their time and judgment go where they are actually needed. Handle the slam-dunk approvals automatically, keep people in control of the decisions that affect coverage, and both beneficiaries and the workforce are better off. The Policy Stack is available on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and most major podcast platforms. #innovaccer #healthcare