2019
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CMS Administrator Ignores Congressional Advisory Committee Recommendation
In 2009, Congress created the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) to advise it on coverage for low-income Americans through Medicaid and CHIP. One of MACPAC’s statutory responsibilities is to “review and assess…Medicaid and CHIP eligibility policies, including a determination of the degree to which federal and state policies provide health care coverage…
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Designed to Fail: Utah’s Backdoor Repeal of Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion
In November 2018, a majority of voters in Utah passed a Medicaid expansion ballot initiative providing Medicaid health coverage to low-income parents and other adults. For example, a family of three with an annual income of less than $29,435/year would be eligible. Voters also approved a very small (0.15 percent) sales tax to pay for…
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Top 10 Rural Counties Where Kids Rely on Medicaid for Health Coverage
As readers of SayAhhh! know, Georgetown University CCF and the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Rural Health Research Center has a joint project which has been tracking the role of Medicaid for rural areas and small towns. We recently updated our online data resource with county figures for 2015/2016, a time period during which the impact…
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Other states likely to follow Utah’s partial Medicaid expansion
Modern Healthcare By: Harris Meyer The Utah Legislature on Monday passed a bill to replace the voter-approved Medicaid expansion with a skinny expansion, a move that may encourage other states to seek similar scaled-back expansions with full federal funding. The Republican-controlled Utah Senate approved legislation passed by the state House of Representatives Friday that replaces the voter-passed…
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Utah’s Novel Plan For Medicaid Expansion Opens Door To Spending Caps Sought By GOP
Kaiser Health News By: Phil Galewitz Utah this week became the 35th state to approve expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, but advocates for the poor worry its unusual financing could set a dangerous precedent and lead to millions of people losing coverage across the country. … Those restrictions would be a radical change for…
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Clearing Up Confusion about the Medicaid Rebate Program: Part III
As federal efforts to address prescription drug costs intensifies, this three-part blog series addresses misleading claims or confusion about Medicaid, its highly effective drug rebate program and overall drug pricing issues in the hopes of better informing the debate moving forward. Part I | Part II Medicaid’s best price requirement is not the reason why…
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CMS Innovation Center releases anticipated funding opportunities focused on children: Will your state apply?
Say Ahhh! readers are familiar with one of our biggest concerns about health care payment and delivery system reforms: Kids, relatively inexpensive to begin with, are often overlooked and rarely the explicit focus. It’s hard to make improvements to health care for children and youth without payment or delivery system changes. And testing new reforms…
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A Troubling Sign: Half a Million Fewer Kids Covered by Medicaid and CHIP in 2018
Recent news of declines in enrollment in Medicaid, the growth in uninsured children and troubles with new eligibility systems in several states prompted me to take a closer look at the recently updated October 2018 Medicaid and CHIP enrollment numbers posted by CMS. As we had feared, the data shows that in the first ten…
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Clearing Up Confusion about the Medicaid Rebate Program: Part II
As federal efforts to address prescription drug costs intensifies, this three-part blog series addresses misleading claims or confusion about Medicaid, its highly effective drug rebate program and overall drug pricing issues in the hopes of better informing the debate moving forward. Part I | Part III Aggressive negotiation and closed formularies are only one factor in…
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Clearing Up Confusion about the Medicaid Rebate Program: Part I
As federal efforts to address prescription drug costs intensify, this three-part blog series addresses misleading claims or confusion about Medicaid, its highly effective drug rebate program and overall drug pricing issues in the hopes of better informing the debate moving forward. Part II | Part III In response to federal Medicaid rebate increases, drug manufacturers would…
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Thousands lose coverage from Medicaid work requirements: New procedures causing confusion
The Nation’s Health By: Kim Krisberg In January 2018, federal officials released guidance on instituting Medicaid work requirements — an unprecedented move for the low-income health program. A year later, work requirements are pending or approved in more than a dozen states, advocates are fighting the rules in court and thousands have lost health coverage.…
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HHS Seeks Major Change in Part D, Medicaid Drug Purchasing
Medscape By: Kerry Dooley Young The Trump administration on Thursday unveiled a plan to allow discounts on prescription medicines to flow more directly to patients in the Medicare Part D pharmacy program, while disrupting the flow of rebates that drugmakers now pay to so-called middlemen. … The initial response to the HHS proposal pays too…
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State wrestles with sizable backlog of Medicaid applications
Anchorage Daily News By: Elizabeth Earl As of Jan. 29, Alaska had a backlog of 15,639 cases of new applicants or renewals on the books. About two-thirds of those, or 10,200 cases, were filed in 2018. The average wait time to be approved is currently 55 days, according to Clinton Bennett, the media relations manager…
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Oregon Effort Incentivizes Health Metrics for Kindergarten Readiness
Preparing a child for school success and the start of kindergarten is one of the most important goals of early childhood care and education. While educators and child development experts would agree that physical, oral, and behavioral health play a major role in a child’s readiness for kindergarten, Oregon and other states have struggled to…
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TennCare work requirements would cost taxpayers nearly $19 million each year, experts say
The Tennessean By: Anita Wadhwani Requiring people to work in order to keep government health insurance will hit low-income Tennessee parents, caregivers and children especially hard and cost the state more money than it saves, a panel of experts said Tuesday. … Joan Alker, executive director of Georgetown Center for Children and Families, said the…
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In rush to revamp Medicaid, Trump officials bend rules that protect patients
Los Angeles Times By: Noam Levey As it races to revamp Medicaid by allowing work requirements for the first time, the Trump administration is failing to enforce federal rules directing states to assess the impact of the change on low-income patients who rely on the half-century-old safety net program, a Times analysis shows. … “There…
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Pediatricians are an Important Ally in Efforts to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently released guidance for its 67,000 doctors on how to help children and families improve school attendance. The policy statement, authored by pediatricians Mandy A. Allison and Elliot Attisha of the organization’s Council on School Health, urges doctors to speak with children and families during office visits about the importance of…
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Risks to Medicaid Surface in Drug Pricing Debate
As the debate over prescription drug pricing heats up, I have been worried for a while that some of the federal policy solutions being considered in Congress and in the Administration could adversely affect Medicaid and its highly effective rebate program, whether inadvertently or intentionally. This could result in higher Medicaid drug costs, reduced beneficiary…
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Report: 68,000 parents would lose TennCare if work requirements take effect
The Tennessean January 31, 2019 By: Anita Wadhwani As Tennessee officials move forward with a plan to require able-bodied adults to work, volunteer or go to school in order to keep state-funded health insurance, a new study finds that 68,000 could lose that benefit entirely as a result. Georgetown University Health Policy Institute researchers based their…
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With Mom’s Green Card On The Line, Family Forgoes Autism Services For Citizen Child
Kaiser Health News February 1, 2019 By: Ashley Lopez As U.S. immigration enforcement becomes stricter under the Trump administration, more immigrant families are cutting ties with health care services and other critical government programs, according to child advocates who work with such families. … Joan Alker, author of the Georgetown report, said the Trump administration’s…
