2012
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Eligibility and Enrollment Systems: An Advocate’s IT Toolkit
Efforts to improve public coverage programs have long been stymied by the prevalence of outdated IT systems that are the source of numerous consumer issues from confusing and conflicting notices to lost eligibility records to inadequate data to measure program performance. Meanwhile the state of technology and web-based services has advanced significantly, leaving many Medicaid…
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Florida leaders still deciding fate of Obamacare
Tampa Bay Times November 15, 2012 By Jodie Tillman and Letitia Stein President Barack Obama’s signature health care program, which could extend coverage to most of the 4 million uninsured Floridians, is hardly a done deal in the Sunshine State. Republican state leaders, counting on a Mitt Romney victory and the end of Obamacare, stalled key action to…
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Countdown Clock Toward 2014 is Ticking (No More Timeouts)
The Affordable Care Act is the law of the land – even House Speaker John Boehner affirmed that point in an interview with Diane Sawyer on ABC Nightly News. The countdown clock on implementation is ticking and there are no more time outs left. States need to move full speed ahead to beat the clock…
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The Election Results Are In: Now What Happens with the Affordable Care Act?
(Editor’s Note: We welcome Senator Rockefeller’s Senior Health Policy Aide Sarah Dash to Georgetown University’s Health Policy team. She is joining our colleagues at the Center on Health Insurance Reforms where she will direct a 50-state evaluation of state health insurance exchange implementation and its impact on access to affordable, high-quality health care. She will also…
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What Do the Election Results Mean for the Affordable Care Act?
Last night was a good night for health care reform and the millions of Americans who will benefit from it. The Affordable Care Act has faced years of mudslinging, attempts to defund it, a Supreme Court challenge and played a high profile role in this year’s election. The election results underscore the fact that the…
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What Do We Know About Managed Care in Medicaid?
By Joe Touschner Managed care has been part of the Medicaid landscape for many years. Those of us who focus on children and families enrolled in Medicaid are particularly familiar with it—the overwhelming majority of kids in Medicaid are in managed care as are most of the adults who are not elderly or experiencing disabilities. …
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In-Person Assistors May Look a Lot Like Navigators
Quietly embedded in the June 29, 2012 update of the exchange establishment grant funding opportunity announcement (FOA) was a new category of consumer assistance – in person assistance (IPA). While federal officials haven’t been completely mum about this announcement, we have yet to see anything in writing (beyond what’s in the FOA and exchange blueprint)…
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First Focus and Save the Children Issue Report on America’s Children
Actress Jennifer Garner was joined on stage with former Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), First Focus President Bruce Lesley, and Save the Children Senior Vice President Mark Shriver on Wednesday, October 10th for the release of America’s Report Card 2012: Children in the United States, a national report card issued by First…
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Speaking of Medicaid …
By Joe Touschner Say Ahhh! readers talk about Medicaid and CHIP all the time and it’s long been a key topic during state budget hearings. But lately, Medicaid seems to be under discussion everywhere, including the last presidential debate. And talk of Medicaid is only going to intensify in the coming months as we enter…
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Final Rule Approves Pay Raise for Medicaid Primary Care Services
Starting in January 2013 and extending through December 2014, physicians and practitioners (such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners) will receive reimbursement for Medicaid primary care services comparable to those paid for Medicare. As I noted in this blog when the proposed rule was released, primary care is one of our best buys in health…
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Golden State’s health-coverage woes: Reports shed light on California’s medical-insurance woes
Chico News & Review November 1, 2012 More than a million Californians lost their employer-based health coverage between 2009 and 2011, a new study finds. The UCLA Center for Health Policy Research found that the number of state residents with employer-based coverage decreased from 17.3 million in 2009 to 16.1 million in 2011, or from…
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GA ranks low in uninsured kids
WALB 10 November 1, 2012 By Ashton Pellom Georgia ranks almost near the bottom when it comes the number of uninsured children. A study by Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families ranks Georgia 48th in the country when it comes to children being covered by health insurance. The study says the state’s number of…
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Fewer Uninsured Kids in State, but Program Responsible for Drop Is Now Gone
All Gov California October 31, 2012 By Ken Broder California has had marked success since 2009 at getting more children medically insured—and, consequently, provided with better health care—but the program critical to that success was axed this year by Governor Jerry Brown’s budget. A study by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute found that the…
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Number of Uninsured Children On The Rise
Nevada Public Radio AIR DATE: October 31, 2012 LISTEN TO M3U | DOWNLOAD MP3 Why is the number of uninsured kids in Nevada growing? In most other states, the number is going down. How does a lack of insurance, especially among kids, affect us as a community? GUESTS Dr. Noah Kohn, founder and director of…
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Kaiser Survey Finds Medicaid Spending Growth is Down
By Tara Mancini Last week’s release of the Kaiser Family Foundation’s 50-State Medicaid Budget Survey for State Fiscal Years 2012 and 2013 brings encouraging news. The big picture findings from this 12th annual survey indicate that growth in both total Medicaid spending and enrollment were down in 2012. Medicaid enrollment is projected to grow at…
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Romney Praises State-Level Innovations In Medicaid, Then Proposes Cuts That Would Stifle Them
Think Progress October 30, 2012 By Jeff Spross Mitt Romney’s plan for Medicaid actually comes in two distinct parts: One, block grant the program, thus turning administration of it completely over to state governments. Two, cut the program as a share of the economy by a third over the next decade, and keep cutting after…
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Georgia must take better care of at-risk children
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer October 30, 2012 Between 2009 and 2011, the number of Georgia children not covered by any kind of health insurance fell by almost 45,000. When thousands of the state’s most vulnerable citizens have access to health care they didn’t have before, that’s good news by any measure. By another measure of child welfare,…
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GA 48th In Nation for Uninsured Kids
Georgia Public Radio October 30, 2012 by Ellen Reinhardt While the number of uninsured children nationwide is at an historic low, Georgia continues to rank 48th in the country when it comes to making sure children are covered by health insurance. Georgia’s numbers are dropping, just not as fast as those of larger states. Georgetown…
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Florida sees drop in uninsured children, but still has third-highest number
The Gainesville Sun October 26, 2012 By Kristine Crane The number of uninsured children has dropped in Florida, but the state still has one of the highest numbers of uninsured kids in the country, according to a national study released this week. The study, conducted by the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, found a…
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Oregon tops U.S. in reducing uninsured children
KTVZ October 26, 2012 The number of uninsured children in Oregon decreased by 3.1 percent from 2009 to 2011, tying Texas for the largest decline in the country, according to a new report by Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center for Children and Families. “We are proud to see that enrollment efforts have succeeded and…