One of the major components of the Affordable Care Act implementation has been the option for States to expand their Medicaid programs. New York State opted to expand its program; with this expansion comes new budgeting rules. On October 1, 2013, New York State's Exchange, New York State of Health, began taking applications for certain populations or categories of Medicaid recipients; the Exchange will begin implementing new budgeting practices based on this population’s Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). Consequently, this group is known as the MAGI population.

On October 10, The Legal Aid Society conducted a training to provide an overview of the Medicaid expansion for the MAGI populations. The attached materials outline who the MAGI populations are, what has changed in Medicaid budgeting for the MAGI populations and what will stay the same, as well as a timeline for the implementation of MAGI budgeting rules.

The attached materials were created by Belkys Garcia, Staff Attorney in the Health Law Unit at The Legal Aid Society, and Arielle McTootle, Paralegal Case Handler in the Health Law Unit at The Legal Aid Society.

The materials provide information on new Medicaid eligibility and budgeting rules for MAGI populations, and additional resources for advocates to understand how MAGI is determined, and includes the State Department of Health policy guidelines on Medicaid eligibility for MAGI groups. The Administrative Directive (13 ADM-03) that was referrenced in the training can be found here.