2013
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Keep Eye on Medicaid Plans: Report
Health News Florida October 8, 2013 By Carol Gentry A research team that has been monitoring Florida’s “Medicaid Reform” movement for almost a decade is calling for vigilance as the last patients – those who are sickest and most at risk – are transferred into commercial HMOs. The authors noted with approval that federal health…
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Obama Urges Patience With Exchange Glitches; Fixes Made
California Healthline October 7, 2013 President Obama in an interview with the Associated Press on Saturday acknowledged glitches in the federally operated online exchanges, but urged consumers not to “give up” in their attempts to obtain coverage through the portal, the New York Times reports. Obama said the high amount of traffic on the websites “shows that people really need and…
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Obamacare glitches give paper applications new life
Politico October 7, 2013 By Jason Millman Obamacare is supposed to be a 21st-century shopping experience, but the health law can’t escape living in an older paper world. One of President Barack Obama’s favorite claims about his health law is that finding coverage is as easy as going online to buy a plane ticket. That’s…
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Early Results in Arkansas Show ACA is Reaching Uninsured Children and Families
By Anna Strong, Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families Early evidence is already available in Arkansas to show the immediate benefits our state’s children are receiving from the Affordable Care Act. We’ve written before that research shows the BEST way to cover the state’s remaining 46,000 uninsured children is to make sure parents have access to affordable…
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How Does ACA’s First Week Compare to Medicare Part D’s?
Since the official opening of health insurance marketplaces on October 1, there have been reports of broad interest and high traffic to marketplace websites, but also of various glitches and delays with those websites. Back in the fall of 2005, there was a similar launch for Medicare’s new Part D prescription drug benefit. Does this…
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Arkansas Leads Way on Alternate Route for Medicaid Expansion
ABC News October 4, 2013 By Gillian Mohney With only a few months to go until the Affordable Care Act is fully up and running, many states remain on the fence about expanding Medicaid, the U.S. health program that provides medical coverage to low-income individuals and families. But the state of Arkansas has provided an…
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If CMS and Arkansas Agree on a Strong Evaluation Plan, I May Breathe a Bit Easier
In August I blogged about Arkansas’s waiver proposal to expand Medicaid using the so-called “private option” which actually means newly-eligible Medicaid beneficiaries will be picking plans from the new insurance marketplace established by the Affordable Care Act. The waiver proposal was approved last Friday but a number of pieces are still outstanding. Expecting approval, the…
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Catching Up on Dental Coverage for Kids
By Joe Touschner Marketplaces are now open and families are comparing plans so it’s a good time to focus on where we stand on dental coverage and link to a couple of helpful resources from the Children’s Dental Health Project and Community Catalyst. As we’ve known since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law,…
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Reform Update: Training lagging for counselors to help consumers use exchanges
Modern Healthcare October 3, 2013 By Steven Ross Johnson Healthcare providers and community organizations across the country that have been designated as certified application counselors to help consumers enroll in health plans on the new state health insurance exchanges are still waiting for their staff to receive certification because of delays by state and federal officials. “People…
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How Will Immigrants Fare Under Health Reform? Encouraging Enrollment
By Dinah Wiley Immigrants who are eligible for Medicaid and CHIP, compared to their citizen counterparts, are less likely to sign up for health coverage. Why is this so? It’s true that newcomers to the U.S. are more healthy than native-born Americans, for a few years at least. Yet when immigrants are offered private insurance…
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Medicaid.Gov Posts State Profiles, Verification Plans and MAGI Eligibility Levels
Happy open enrollment day! If you are looking for detailed information on your state’s plans for implementing the new streamlined application and ACA eligibility requirements, check out this link, then click on your state. Although some of the information is in progress for some states, it’s great to have a wealth of information in one…
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Thousands Have Already Signed Up for Coverage
I am very excited about the reports coming in– thousands of people have signed up for health coverage already. In Kentucky, a Southern state which has been one of the few to embrace health reform, more than 24,000 people had come to the website of Kentucky’s Healthcare Connection and 1,000 applications had been processed by…
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Reform Update: CMS’ approval of Ark. Medicaid expansion plan bodes well for other states
Modern Healthcare October 1, 2013 By Steven Ross Johnson The Obama administration’s approval last week of Arkansas’ plan to expand health coverage for low-income residents under the federal healthcare reform law bodes well for several Republican-led states looking to implement their own alternative models for expanding Medicaid. Last week, the CMS granted Arkansas a Medicaid Section 1115…
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Multi-State Plans Unveiled
They’re finally here – the Multi-State Plans (MSPs). Intended by Congress to inject new competition into state health insurance markets, the MSP options were unveiled yesterday by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). The agency promises that consumers will have more than 150 MSP options in 30 states and the District of Columbia. Within the next four years, there should…
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Answering Your Questions on Certified Application Counselors
I’ve been getting lots of questions on certified application counselors, so I thought it was time to loop back to this issue and try to answer a few based on what I’ve heard along the way. How long does it take to receive approval of a CAC application? HHS has received several thousand applications from…
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Health Insurance for Immigrant Families
The webinar examines changes in health reform law and regulations that affect the eligibility of immigrants and the access barriers they face, particularly when part of mixed-status families. It also looks at which rules have not changed, showing a snapshot of the landscape of coverage options for immigrant families as of 2013. Download the recording
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Key date for new health exchange is Dec. 15
Associated Press September 29, 2013 By Scott Bauer The new online exchange where people can buyhealth insurance opens Tuesday, but advocates for Wisconsin residents who will be shopping for coverage say Dec. 15, not Oct. 1, is the date that most concerns them. That’s the cutoff for coverage beginning in January. The date is especially important…
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Arkansas Medicaid Waiver Agreement Approved
So interesting things always happen on Fridays, I have noticed. This Friday, the week before open enrollment begins, was already pretty hopping when word came that federal CMS had approved Arkansas’ Section 1115 Medicaid waiver request to provide coverage to an estimated 200,000 adults through qualified health plans offered in the Arkansas Health Connector, the state’s health insurance…
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Iowa’s Medicaid Expansion Proposal: A Step Forward, But Read the Fine Print
CCF and 22 other national groups submitted comments to HHS about Iowa’s two complimentary Section 1115 waivers: Iowa Marketplace Choice Plan and Iowa Wellness Plan. Like my colleague Joan Alker wrote last week, Iowa’s proposal is not a simple Medicaid expansion like we saw earlier in the year, but a more complicated “round 2” approach…
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Federal Officials Give Arkansas Medicaid Waiver
Federal Officials Give Arkansas Medicaid Waiver September 27, 2013 By Rebecca Adams Arkansas on Friday became the first state to get federal permission to require adults on Medicaid to get their medical care through the health care law’s marketplaces. It’s a move that could reinvigorate conversations in some other states that have considered asking the…