2013
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On Anniversary of Medicaid, Let’s Celebrate Success in Providing Access to Care and Reducing Poverty
By Tara Mancini Tomorrow we celebrate the anniversary of Medicaid and its 48 years of providing health care access to those with low-income and the medically needy. Medicaid is less often recognized for its ability to provide economic stability to families, even though research has documented its ability to curb the burden of medical expenses.…
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Certified Application Counselors
Trusted community-based organizations and health care providers have been a key part of our nation’s success in bringing the rate of uninsured children down to an historic low. These community partners will also be an important resource in connecting consumers to new coverage options under the Affordable Care Act. In particular, certified application counselors (CACs)…
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GAO Releases New Report on Section 1115 Waiver Budget Neutrality
The latest GAO analysis of Medicaid Section 1115 waivers finds that the federal government does not always have a consistent policy of ensuring that the waivers are “budget neutral” to the federal government. GAO took a look at 10 Medicaid waivers approved in recent years to see whether there was a consistent policy that ensured…
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Tech Tuesday: Visit “Healthcare.Gov” or YouTube to Get a Taste of What’s Around the Corner
Working in the weeds of health policy, it’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of the health care law. And in the media, we are constantly bombarded with the aspects of the law that are most controversial or problematic. So sometimes we lose perspective (I know I do) as we seek perfection in…
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Children’s Medicaid/CHIP Crowd-Out Estimates by State
A new report by researchers at The Ohio State University College of Public Health finds that wealthier families who are eligible for public insurance are less likely to switch from private to public coverage than families earning less. The authors use ACS data and a regression discontinuity approach to obtain state estimates on how many…
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Covering Parents is Good For Kids: Continuous Coverage is even Better
By Tara Mancini A new study published in the Maternal Child Health Journal finds a positive relationship between continuity of coverage for adults and the likelihood that a child in the same household is also insured. The 30-month longitudinal study was conducted between 2003 and 2006 by researchers in Oregon who identified adults eligible for…
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Arkansas Medicaid is Containing Costs Effectively so Why Go Private?
Just saw an interesting press release from Arkansas Medicaid agency on July 12th which says that “Arkansas Medicaid finished State Fiscal Year 2013 just 1.5 percent over the previous year’s spending, marking the program’s lowest annual growth rate in more than three decades.” Thanks to Dylan Scott’s article in Governing Magazine for calling this to…
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New Kaiser/Urban Report Highlights the Costs of NOT Extending Medicaid
By Martha Heberlein As many states are nearing or have reached the end of their legislative sessions, it’s a good time to take stock of who will implement the Medicaid expansion and the far-reaching implications of these decisions. Twenty-four states have decided to move forward with the expansion, 21 will not, and 6 continue to…
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Health Reform at Work – Lower Rates in New York
By Christine Monahan, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms New Yorkers currently or considering purchasing coverage in the individual market woke up to exciting news today: premiums in 2014 are expected to be cut by more than half. And that’s for the most generous coverage on the market. New Yorkers will also be able to purchase…
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Are the Wheels Coming off the ACA Wagon? History Suggests Not
By Sabrina Corlette and Jack Hoadley There’s been a lot of angst lately about some strategic decisions by the Obama Administration to delay implementation of key provisions of the health reform law. Most recently, the Internal Revenue Service told employers that the reporting requirements underpinning the employer mandate would be postponed until 2015. The Department…
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Tech Tuesday: CMS Releases More IT Guidance; It Includes Some But Not “The” Performance Metrics
A couple of weeks ago, CMS released additional IT guidance that is far too long and probably too technical and wonky for most of us. But since the title is “Medicaid Information Technology Architecture Guidance – Draft Eligibility and Enrollment Supplement, Version 3.0,” it immediately caught my eye. I’ve been on the lookout for the…
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Study Finds Most Michigan Medicaid Beneficiaries Satisfied With Coverage, Scared to Lose It
By Natasha Robinson, Michigan Primary Care Association The majority of Michigan’s Medicaid beneficiaries say their coverage is “excellent” or “very good,” but they’re the same group most concerned about losing coverage according to a report released earlier this month from the Center for Healthcare Research & Transformation (CHRT). This group’s concerns about losing coverage more than doubled…
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More Info on Individual Mandate Exemptions
By Joe Touschner The Affordable Care Act’s employer responsibility and individual responsibility requirements have been much discussed since the Administration announced its decision to delay reporting and penalties for the employer requirement for a year. The individual responsibility requirement, however, is still on track to go into effect in January and recent rules and guidance…
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Consumer Group Creates Set of Customer Service Standards for Marketplace Call Centers
By Betsy Imholz, Special Projects Director, Consumers Union Think of the last time you called your cable company to respond to the latest promotion or to ask a billing question. Recall the ache in the pit of your stomach, the cringing expectation you’d be put on hold, shuffled from person to person, denied the promised…
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Final Regulations on Navigators, In-Person Assisters and Certified Application Counselors
It was another hot summer Friday for regulations with the release of the final rule on navigator and non-navigator assisters (aka in-person assisters) and Exchange-based certified application counselors (CAC). (Don’t our friends at CMS know that we like to take weekends off?) All in all, the proposed rules for navigators were finalized with minimal changes…
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CMS Issues Final Rule on New Premium Assistance Option
As my diligent colleague Tricia Brooks reported, CMS issued an important final rule on July 5th that we have been expecting for some time. While the rule did not finalize a number of issues, it did include slightly revised rules for states interested in pursuing premium assistance in the individual market – sort of a hot…
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ACA Reforms Free Up Entrepreneurs to Focus on Their Work
By JoAnn Volk, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms Ever dream about getting out of the rat race and putting your talent and creativity to work helping others? That’s just what Joe and Virginia Murphy did. But they had to give up the security of the health care coverage that came with Joe’s job…
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Health Reform Rule Will Change Not Stop Income Verification
By Judy Solomon, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities In the last several days, some media coverage has seriously misinterpreted changes to how health reform’s new health insurance marketplaces (formerly called exchanges) will verify that applicants are eligible for federal health insurance subsidies. The changes to verification procedures, which the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)…
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Tech Tuesday: How will health coverage websites connect consumers to assistance?
In this countdown to open enrollment, states are scrambling to get their MAGI-based eligibility and enrollment systems ready to go. Already, HealthCare.gov has gotten a facelift and several state based exchanges have launched their websites; all of which will serve as an entry point to the single streamlined application for all insurance affordability programs. It’s…
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Outreach Grant Will Help California Advocates Connect More Kids to Coverage
By Suzie Shupe and Edgar Aguilar, California Coverage and Health Initiatives California is the most populous state in the union and home to more than 13 percent of the nation’s uninsured children. Since coverage is essential for making sure children reach their full potential, California Coverage & Health Initiatives (CCHI) is honored to receive a…