INDIANAPOLIS – Gov. Mike Pence says the state didn’t err when asking the federal government to expand Medicaid using a state-run plan because the state has not yet filed the waiver.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services returned Indiana’s paperwork last month with a note that the state needed to conduct public hearings before re-submitting it. The delay has placed the state’s Healthy Indiana Plan in jeopardy of shutting down if the state doesn’t win approval before a June deadline.

But Pence wrote to legislative Democrats on Thursday, saying that the state never actually filed the waiver. He said that what was sent to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius last month was an “advance copy.”

Pence spokeswoman Christy Denault said the state will file the actual waiver next month.