2019
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CCF Comments to Administration’s Harmful Rebate Safe Harbor Rule
We submitted comments to the Trump Administration’s proposed regulation to eliminate the safe harbor in the federal anti-kickback law for rebates negotiated by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) on behalf of Medicaid managed care plans (and Medicare Part D plans). As we have previously written, the proposed regulation raises serious concerns because it would likely…
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More News on T-MSIS – Medicaid’s Transformed Statistical Information System
Say Ahhh! readers know I’ve been following the development of CMS’ new Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) for…well…years. The last news we got on T-MSIS was last August when CMS released a State Health Officer Letter detailing its top 12 priorities for states, which I summarized in this blog. Recently, CMS issued a new…
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2019 Medicaid and CHIP Snapshot Data Sources
Name of CHIP Program Kaiser Family Foundation, CHIP Program Name and Type, State Health Facts (as of May 1, 2015). Please note that effective 2013 the former California CHIP program,California Healthy Families Program has been converted into Medi-Cal. Type of CHIP Program Kaiser Family Foundation, CHIP Program Name and Type, State Health Facts (as of May 1, 2015). Number…
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Evaluating the Administration’s Narrative on Medicaid Work Reporting Requirements
It turns out that last week was Never Mind Week. Who would have guessed? On Monday the Administration released its “Budget for a Better America,” proposing to cut federal Medicaid spending by nearly $1.5 trillion (with a “t”) over the next ten years. These cuts included a mandate that state Medicaid programs require that “able-bodied,…
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Four Steps to Improve Children’s Oral Health Care in Medicaid and CHIP
Our partners at the Children’s Dental Health Project (CDHP) released a great report recently called, “Medicaid Dental Guidance to States: An Opportunity to Aim for Equity,” highlighting how states, managed care organizations (MCOs), providers, and advocates can work to improve dental care for children covered by Medicaid and CHIP. The report draws from CMS guidance…
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Early Childhood
A child’s brain develops most rapidly in the earliest years of life, building the foundation for learning, behavior and health. Medicaid, along with CHIP, serves four out of five young children in low-income families, serving as a logical place to reach these children and their families before kindergarten. Prioritizing young children and their families in…
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Many Unanswered Questions about Trump Budget’s CHIP Financing Proposal
The Trump Administration’s fiscal year 2020 budget, released on March 11, includes a single legislative proposal (described here) related to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Entitled “Strengthen the CHIP Safety Net for States,” the proposal would eliminate the CHIP’s Child Enrollment Contingency Fund in fiscal year 2021 and replace it with a new Shortfall…
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Alex Azar’s confusing claim on Medicaid work requirements
Politico By: Dan Diamond What advocates counter: There are open questions about the effects of work requirements, with officials yesterday struggling to make the case in court and CMS putting out new guidance on how states should collect information. (More on that below.) “They have absolutely no idea what happened to the 18,000,” said Joan…
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Why The Possibility Of TennCare Converting To A Block Grant Has Opponents Growing Worried
Nashville Public Radio By: Blake Farmer A proposed change to how Tennessee’s Medicaid program is funded by the federal government has some health care advocates worried. The state could be one of the first to ask for a so-called “block grant” to pay for the health care of low-income residents. … The legislation, HB1280/SB1428, would direct…
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Missouri is No. 1 for drop in child enrollment in public health
St. Louis Post Dispatch By: Michael Ollove The number of children enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP — two government health plans for the poor — fell by nearly 600,000 in the first 11 months of 2018, a precipitous drop that has puzzled and alarmed many health policy analysts, while…
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Trump’s Medicaid budget plan could leave states and enrollees hanging
Modern Healthcare By: Harris Meyer The $1.5 trillion Medicaid cuts and the national work requirement in President Donald Trump’s new proposed budget inject fresh uncertainty into the fate of current state efforts by Republicans to overhaul the healthcare program for poor and disabled Americans. … The Trump budget would reduce federal Medicaid spending by $1.48…
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The legal fight over the Trump administration’s most aggressive play to cut Medicaid, explained
Vox By: Dylan Scott Medicaid work requirements will be in federal court on Thursday, as conservative Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin and the Trump administration argue they should be allowed to tie poor people’s health insurance to work requirements or other “community engagement.” … Adding to the confusion, Bevin didn’t even really need to issue that…
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Trump Budget Includes Harmful Medicaid Drug Rebate Proposal, Several Sound Improvements
On March 11, the Trump Administration released its fiscal year 2020 budget. As my colleague Andy Schneider has written, the Administration budget plan would repeal the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion, impose a per capita cap or block grant on the rest of the Medicaid program, require all states to adopt onerous work reporting requirements…
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CMS Announces Reorganization of Offices Overseeing Medicaid and CHIP
CMS recently announced a reorganization of the regional and central offices that oversee Medicaid and CHIP. It’s too soon to tell how the re-org will impact the day-to-day operations of Medicaid and CHIP, but the federal register notice says that the new structure will support consistent policy implementation and accountability. You may not have even…
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Administration’s Budget Proposal Includes $1.5 Trillion in Medicaid Cuts
[Editor’s Note: Read about the Trump Administration’s budget proposal for FY2021.] Here they go again. Last year, the Administration proposed a budget that would have cut federal Medicaid spending by $1.4 trillion over ten years. In the budget released this morning, the Administration proposes to cut federal Medicaid spending by $1.5 trillion over the next…
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How Does Losing Medicaid Help You Get a Job?
The Nation By: Bryce Covert By the time Steven Mitchell made it—by foot—to the Churches Joint Council on Human Needs food pantry in Benton, Arkansas, on a cold November day, his two hernias had him limping in pain. A few weeks before, he had received a letter from the state’s Department of Human Services informing…
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Child Enrollment in Public Health Programs Fell by 600K Last Year
Stateline By: Michael Ollove The number of kids enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) — two government health plans for the poor — fell by nearly 600,000 in the first 11 months of 2018, a precipitous drop that has puzzled and alarmed many health policy analysts, while several states say it…
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What States Can Do to Help Babies and Their Families Thrive
Each baby is born with limitless potential, and anyone who has ever held a baby has felt the enormity of opportunity ahead. But as ZERO TO THREE and Child Trends’ 50-state assessment of the state of babies in the United States finds, some babies come into the world facing more obstacles than opportunities. One in…
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Why are more families losing children’s health insurance coverage?
The Inquirer By: David Rubin At the start of each new year, I find myself reflecting on how my pediatric practice is changing. Now that I have been practicing for more than 20 years, one of the biggest developments is that some of the children I cared for at the start of my career are…
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CMS Rejects MACPAC’s Advice To Pause Arkansas Work Requirements
Inside Health Policy The Trump administration is rejecting a recommendation from the federal Medicaid advisory commission to pause Arkansas’ controversial program of Medicaid work requirements, CMS Administrator Seema Verma told the commission’s chairwoman in a letter obtained by Inside Health Policy. The decision allows Arkansas to continue imposing the program on tens of thousands of additional…
