2012
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HHS Shares Info on Small Group Plans
By Joe Touschner It’s a busy month on the essential health benefits front! As we’ve noted, one option for states under the proposed approach for state-defined EHB packages is to use one of the state’s three largest small group plans as a benchmark. It’s been difficult to evaluate this proposal because we didn’t know which…
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Keeping Score -How Well Are Medicaid and CHIP Doing?
This week’s national football league conference championship games and the theme my colleague, Jocelyn Guyer, picked for her latest blog (where she admits to an obsession with Tom Brady) got me was thinking about statistics and scores as it relates to children’s coverage. While the uninsured rate is the final score, there are a lot…
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CCF Shares Comments on the Essential Health Benefits Bulletin
By Joe Touschner We have been offering our insights on essential health benefits through a series of blog posts. This post is to alert you that Georgetown CCF has drafted a letter in response to the Bulletin issued by HHS in December. We raise a number of concerns with the Bulletin’s approach to essential health…
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Samantha Garvey Helps Shed Light on the Plight of the 1 in 45 Children who are Homeless
By: Tara Mancini and Joan Alker Editor’s Note: Like so many others, we were touched by the story of Samantha Garvey, an inspirational homeless student from New York who is a finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search competition. She was invited to attend President Obama’s State of the Union address tonight as the guest…
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Failed Health-Care Experiment
Tampa Bay Online January 22, 2012 The federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is being asked to grant Florida a waiver to expand a managed-care experiment for Medicaid recipients across the state. I am urging the federal government to deny the waiver. The Florida Legislature’s planned conversion of Medicaid into private managed-care plans has…
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South Carolina Shares Safety-Net Data to Improve Medicaid
Government Health IT January 20, 2012 South Carolina has received kudos for improving its methods to expand and retain eligible children in Medicaid by using information from other safety-net programs, such as food stamps, for enrollment. At the same time, the technical tools to share data and the efficiency they generate also reduce state administrative…
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Secrets to Success: Four States at the Forefront of Children’s Health Coverage Gains
By Jocelyn Guyer There are people in my family who think I am unduly obsessed with Tom Brady. They might even accuse me of co-authoring a paper on states at the forefront of covering our nation’s children that features Massachusetts just so I could say “Just as Tom Brady is in a league of his…
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States Turn to Technology to Improve Medicaid and CHIP Programs
GOVERNING January 19, 2012 Budgetary pressures and the pending requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) defined 2011 for Medicaid and Children Health Insurance Programs (CHIP). But according to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured’s annual 50-state survey on eligibility, enrollment, renewal and cost-sharing in Medicaid and CHIP released this week, states maintained…
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Medicaid Enrollment Steady in 2011, Report Finds
MedPage Today January 19, 2012 WASHINGTON — Enrollment in state Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) remained steady in 2011 and into 2012, and some states made it easier for low-income people to have coverage, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Read the Full Article
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Mass. “Culture Of Coverage” Is Key To Near-Universal Children’s Health Insurance
WBUR January 20, 2012 It’s not the sexiest label for a state to have, clearly, but Massachusetts’ ‘culture of coverage,’ is one of the main reasons that 99.5% of children here have health insurance (as of 2010), the highest rate in the nation, according to a new analysis of four geographically diverse states that have…
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Enrollment in Medicaid, CHIP Remained Stable in 2011, Report Finds
California Healthline January 19, 2012 The number of U.S. residents who had health insurance through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program remained stable in 2011, despite a struggling economy that created budget strains for states and forced more individuals into poverty, according to a report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured…
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Foster Kids Need Services, Not More Prescriptions
By Laura Boyd, Foster Family-Based Treatment Association New light has been shed recently on the plight of foster youth and too limited application of individualized, clinically assessed psychosocial treatment protocols for these vulnerable youth. While the national child advocacy community and certain leaders on Capitol Hill have been concerned about the over-prescribing and/or inappropriate prescribing…
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Medicaid Enrollment Steady with Tech Overhauls
Fierce HealthIT January 19, 2012 Half of states boasted easier enrollment into the Medicaid program last year by revamping decades-old systems and streamlining eligibility and enrollment systems, according a report [1] released yesterday by the Kaiser Family Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, conducted with the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The 50-state…
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Feds Helped States Increase Insurance Coverage For Children In The Midst Of An Economic Recovery
Think Progress January 19, 2012 Yesterday, the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured released their annual report outlining trends in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) eligibility, enrollment, renewal, and cost-sharing policies in all fifty states. As families continue to struggle in a weak economy, Medicaid and CHIP remain essential sources of healthcare…
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Performing Under Pressure: Annual Findings of a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2011-2012
Amid ongoing state budget pressures, a requirement in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that states maintain eligibility in Medicaid and CHIP was central in preserving coverage during 2011. In addition, more than half of states (29) made improvements in their programs. Most of these improvements involved greater use of technology to boost program efficiency and…
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Strengthening Medicaid Issue Briefs
Issue Briefs These Strengthening Medicaid issue briefs, which offer new ideas to make the program stronger, are authored by a number of health care experts, including some who bring knowledge and experience from outside fields to the Medicaid context. You can also view the Medicaid section of the website for all CCF publications related to Medicaid. Strengthening…
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States Ease Barrier to Medicaid, CHIP Enrollment, Survey Says
Kaiser Health News January 18, 2012 Half the states last year made it easier for children and their parents to enroll in Medicaid by streamlining enrollment and using technology advances to verify citizenship requirements, according to a report released Wednesday. Read the Full Story
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States Streamline Medicaid Using U.S. Funds to Cut Costs
Bloomberg Businessweek January 18, 2012 A stipulation in the 2010 health- care law that bans U.S. states from dropping Medicaid patients has forced them to be more efficient in managing the program, according to a report published today. While Medicaid, the joint U.S.-State health plan for low income people, is among the biggest expenses for…
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State Steps Up Health Care Coverage for Kids
Montgomery Advertiser January 18, 2012 Alabama’s successful efforts to increase the number of children with health care coverage has made it a standout in the region, according to a national study released Wednesday. Read the Full Article
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New Report: Oregon Health Care Recruitment Is Working
Oregon Public Broadcasting January 18, 2012 Oregon’s efforts to get kids signed up for state-sponsored health care stand out among the states, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Many states are trying to streamline enrollment procedures to prepare for new federal health care laws that will take effect by 2014. Read…