2013
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At the Intersection of Public and Private
No this blog is not about Arkansas’ plans to use Medicaid dollars to purchase “private” coverage. It is about my first foray into the world of Twitter. For many months now, various people whom I highly respect have told me that I need to start tweeting. A few months ago, I sighed heavily and signed…
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Making Medicaid Work for Child Welfare Populations: Insights from States
By Kamala Allen, Director of Child Health Quality at the Center for Health Care Strategies We know that many children in child welfare have significant health care needs – often exacerbated by trauma, abuse, and neglect – and that most are eligible for coverage through Medicaid. We also know that it can be difficult to…
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Tech Tuesday: Technology and Website Design Matter When It Comes to Selecting a Health Plan
By Julie Silas, Consumers Union Over the past two years, like many of you, I have been expending my energy on fine tuning important policy positions that will impact millions of people (hello, please, no more proposed regulations!). While I have tried to wade into the practical, concrete functionality that will be essential for those…
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Navigator and Assister Training Is Not a One Shot Deal
Now that both state-based and the federally-facilitated marketplaces are well on their way to recruiting and selecting navigators, attention turns to training and support. Effective training is critical to ensuring that the needs of consumers, particularly low-income, hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations, are met. But training is only one element of creating and supporting a high-functioning…
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Covering Parents is Good for Kids: How Accepting the Medicaid Option Can Help Pennsylvania Kids
(Editor’s Note: This blog is based on testimony presented by the author before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Human Services Committee today.) By George Hoover, Pennsylvania Partnership for Kids Pennsylvania has a strong history of providing health care coverage to children – a history that was built through bipartisan efforts and a commitment to “Cover…
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Final Rule on Workplace Wellness Programs: A Look at the Implications for Consumers
By JoAnn Volk, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms The ACA’s ban on using health status to set health insurance premiums is a key consumer protection in the new law and will bring relief to tens of millions of Americans who face discrimination in today’s health insurance market. Proponents argued the ban would make…
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Tech Tuesday: Medicaid Assessment or Determination by the Federal Marketplace
People who are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP in their state do not qualify for premium tax credits (or cost-sharing reductions) to help pay for a qualified health plan (QHP) in either a state-based exchange or the federally-facilitated marketplace (FFM). When someone applies for coverage through the FFM in the 34 states that are not…
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The ACA: Improving Incentives for Entrepreneurship and Self-Employment
By Sabrina Corlette, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms A few years ago I met a woman who had, to my mind, the dream life. She had her own health policy consultancy business and worked out of her home. She tackled interesting projects for clients, made a good salary, and was her own boss.…
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Implementing the ACA’s Extension of Medicaid to Former Foster Youth
It should be one of the health reform law’s most straightforward provisions: young adults who were in foster care and enrolled in Medicaid at the age of 18 (or older in states that extend foster care beyond the 18th birthday) get Medicaid coverage until they turn 26. But a wrinkle developed when HHS released proposed…
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Red Flags Raised on Indiana Waiver Proposal
A group of influential national organizations, including Georgetown CCF, submitted a letter today to Secretary Sebelius expressing concerns about some features of the pending Section 1115 Medicaid Demonstration request from the state of Indiana. The letter is available here. The Section 1115 waiver request focuses on using Healthy Indiana as a vehicle for the state’s…
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Tech Tuesday: An Advocate’s Role in Medicaid Eligibility and Enrollment System Development
Even as states across the country continue to evaluate their options for implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), almost all states are moving to take advantage of significant federal funding to modernize their Medicaid information technology (IT) infrastructures in response to the new law. The decisions being made now and in the months ahead will…
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Survey Finds Strong Support for Medicaid Option in the Deep South
By Wesley Prater As a guy from Mississippi, it’s been a bit disappointing to hear about the ideological opposition from Governors in Southern states (with the exception of Arkansas) to accept federal money to cover more uninsured families through Medicaid. But let’s not assume that most Southerners are opposed to accepting this Medicaid option. In…
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Five Strategies to Make it Easier to Enroll in Medicaid and CHIP Coverage
By Martha Heberlein In case you missed it, it was a beautiful day in Washington on Friday and some exciting news from CMS made the day all the brighter – a State Health Official letter they released provides states with some tools to enroll eligible folks more efficiently. Understanding that states will be facing the…
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Encouraging Low Income Families to Enroll in Health Insurance Coverage Online
By Gene Lewit, Stanford University’s Center for Health Policy/Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research President Obama, in conjunction with many states, nonprofit organizations, insurance brokers and others, is set to embark on an outreach campaign designed to motivate almost 30 million Americans to enroll in health coverage made available through the Affordable Care Act…
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Assister Types Abound: But Will Navigators and Assisters Be Plentiful Enough?
I was ready to wrap up this blog series last week when HHS announced an additional $150 million in funding for “Outreach and Enrollment Assisters” in community health centers to help connect consumers to coverage. There seems to be a wealth of assisters: navigators, in-person assisters, certified application counselors and now health center assisters. And…
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CMS Releases Proposed DSH Hospital Cuts Methodology
By Martha Heberlein Anticipating that declines in the number of uninsured people would reduce the costs of uncompensated care, the Affordable Care Act cut Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments to hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income individuals. On Monday, CMS released a proposed rule that begins to explain how these reductions will be implemented.…
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In the Midst of “Rate Shock” Fears, Insurers are Requesting Lower Rates in Oregon
By Sabrina Corlette, Center on Health Insurance Reforms An interesting thing happened in Oregon last week. The Division of Insurance(DOI) posted insurers’ proposed premium rates for 2014. That in itself isn’t so interesting – the DOI has one of the more transparent rate review programs in the country and publicly posts rates when they’re first filed. So these…
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Breast Cancer Patient Had to Become a Fundraiser to Make Up for Insurance Plan Shortcomings
By JoAnn Volk, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reform More than three years after Congress enacted the Affordable Care Act, both the House and Senate are still holding hearings on the law, covering everything from how the Administration is working to implement the law to what it will mean for our health insurance…
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Foster Care Provision State Partner Webinar
The May 2013 State Partner call/ webinar focused on the foster care provision of the ACA. Download the video here.
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Tech Tuesday – Technology Takes Over to Verify Medicaid Eligibility Electronically
With new high-performing IT systems, states will be able to use cost-effective, trusted and secure electronic data sources to verify eligibility including income, citizenship, immigration status, and other criteria. States have some discretion in how they verify eligibility (i.e. what data sources they use) but they cannot require individuals to provide documentation or more information…