2012
-
Children’s Socioeconomic Status and Health: Progress Made and Opportunities to Seize
By Tara Mancini The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) recently released the 2011 edition of their annual report on the health status of the nation. The 35th edition, “Health, United States, 2011,” provides single year data, as well as trend data where it is available. The report…
-
Six States Explore More Efficient Ways to Provide Family Benefits
For those of us who appreciate the opportunities and challenges states face in implementing the Affordable Care Act, it is easy to get wrapped up in making sure the expanded health coverage programs are streamlined and well coordinated. Much of the work ahead relies on having sophisticated IT systems that will revolutionize the eligibility and…
-
Access to Care for Adults Has Diminished Over the Past 10 Years
By Martha Heberlein A recent article in Health Affairs finds that access to care for adults has deteriorated in the last decade. The likelihood of having a usual source of care, an office visit, or seeing a dentist all declined. At the same time, the likelihood of visiting an emergency room rose slightly. Adults were…
-
Youth in Foster Care Can Benefit Greatly from ACA, but Need Advocates to Act Now to Make Sure They Do
By Ginny Puddefoot, The Children’s Partnership Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), youth who are in foster care on their 18th birthday will soon have access to extended health insurance coverage through Medicaid until reaching the age of 26. This represents a huge benefit to these young people–and a major challenge for all…
-
The Complex Modern Family and Barriers to Children’s Health Coverage
By Gene Lewit, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation Children with health insurance coverage start off life on the right foot: they are healthier, miss fewer days of school and their parents and guardians miss less work. Happily, recent efforts to grow and strengthen Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program have extended coverage to…
-
Katie Beckett’s Legacy Lives On
By Jocelyn Guyer It was with a heavy heart that I read the news that Katie Beckett had passed away. As many Say Ahhh! readers know, Katie Beckett and her mother Julie helped create the home and community based waivers known as the “Katie Beckett waivers”. They made it possible for those with long-term disabilities…
-
New Guidance on Federally-Facilitated Exchanges Will Have a Super-Sized Impact
By Jocelyn Guyer Last week, HHS released new guidance on how it will operate federally-facilitated exchanges (FFE) in states that are not ready to operate their own. It is a sparse 19-pages, but it will have a super-sized impact on how ACA is implemented in the months and years ahead. We now are looking at…
-
Employer-Sponsored Insurance Declining More Rapidly for Low-Wage Workers
A recent report from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation underscores that when it comes to health insurance provided on the job, the less you make the less you get. Take a look at the chart below which illustrates the decline in employer-sponsored coverage by income level. The lowest paid workers –…
-
Making Sure Primary Care’s Pay Raise Gets Implemented
Ever had an employer promise you a raise and not deliver? Sure, occasionally the payroll department delays getting the money in your paycheck, but generally speaking, you expect your employer to follow-through. Will this be the case with the mandatory bump-up in Medicaid payment rates to Medicare-equivalent levels for primary care services? Wonk-warning ahead –…
-
Kickstarting Your Back-to-School Activities
July 13, 2010 Included in this webinar is a brief overview of how the federal government is ready to support school-based outreach to enroll eligible children into healthcare programs, an update from GMMB (the advertising firm that has supported previous Back-to-School efforts) about the resources and tools available to support your Back-to-School efforts this year,…
-
Medicaid Controls Health Care Costs Better than Other Insurers
By Tara Mancini Since 2008, we’ve heard reports about growing Medicaid enrollment and consequently, a rise in its cost (which was mainly incurred by the federal government). Of course we now know that the increases in Medicaid enrollment, and subsequently Medicaid spending, coincided with the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. And by now, Say…
-
2011 Finish Line Flash Editions
December 14, 2011 This week, the Finish Line Flash shares a great editorial from Utah, a new report on collecting and using data to support improvements in enrollment and retention, a handy one-page flowchart showing coverage decisions under the ACA, and a brief write-up that explains the affordability test problem that causes the family penalty…
-
Finish Line Conferences – Information and Materials
By Martha Heberlein 2012 Summer Conference Save the Date! This year’s Annual Meeting will be held July 17-19 in Washington, DC. Past Conferences: 2011 Conference: Are We Nearing the Finish Line Yet? The State of Play in Children’s Coverage 2010 Conference: Getting to the Finish Line 2009 Conference: Getting to the Finish Line 2008 Conference:…
-
CHIPRA Cycle II Grantees: Successful Strategies to Enroll Eligible Children in Medicaid and CHIP
By Martha Heberlein February 27, 2012 Join us for a webinar on Monday, February 27 to hear about new and innovative outreach strategies to enroll eligible children in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). We will feature three outstanding projects from among the 39 grantees selected for the second round of $40 million…
-
The Twenty-First Century Enrollment Experience
By Martha Heberlein December 15, 2011 The Affordable Care Act will accelerate the use of technology for families and individuals to apply for, enroll in and retain their Medicaid, CHIP and Exchange-based coverage through robust web-based systems and electronic data matches to verify eligibility. It is critically important that these systems be fast, friendly and…
-
Finish Line Conference 2011
Are We Nearing the Finish Line Yet? The State of Play in Children’s Coverage October 18-20, 2011 Conference Materials Agenda Participant List Pictures Session Slides Ed Walz, Spitfire Strategies, “Breakfast Roundtable on Narrative Model”. Vikki Wachino, Director of the Children and Adults Health Programs Group, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, “Assessing the Federal Landscape:…
-
Medical Homes: Local Focus, Better Health
As policymakers across the country look to balance their budgets, some are turning to Medicaid, recycling the same harmful policies they’ve used year-after-year: eliminating coverage for vulnerable Americans, restricting critical benefits like prescription drug coverage, imposing premiums on those who can’t afford them, and slashing already-low provider reimbursement rates. Community Catalyst and Georgetown University Health…
-
Medical Homes: Local Focus, Better Health
As policymakers across the country look to balance their budgets, some are turning to Medicaid, recycling the same harmful policies they’ve used year-after-year: eliminating coverage for vulnerable Americans, restricting critical benefits like prescription drug coverage, imposing premiums on those who can’t afford them, and slashing already-low provider reimbursement rates. Community Catalyst and Georgetown University Health…
-
Medicaid Primary Care Services get An Overdue Raise
Primary care is one of our best buys in health care because of its proven effectiveness in improving health outcomes and avoiding more costly health services. This is particularly true for children as they move through different phases of development, and people with chronic health conditions. But it’s also a well-known fact that primary care…
-
Quality Mothers Deserve Quality Care!
By Cynthia Pellegrini, March of Dimes It sounds like a rejected Hallmark card: “Sending you wishes for high quality maternal and child health care, today and every day.” But on Mother’s Day, it’s especially appropriate to talk about healthy women, healthy pregnancies, and healthy babies and children. For many of us in the health policy…