2019
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84 days after Utah residents voted to expand Medicaid, lawmakers have other plans
Think Progress January 28, 2019 By: Amanda Michelle Gomez The Utah state legislature returns to work on Monday and GOP lawmakers are already proposing multiple bills that hobble a successful ballot measure to expand health care to more low-income residents. Utah State Sen. Allen Christensen’s (R) bill would prevent the ballot initiative — “Proposition 3,”…
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Fear Of Deportation Or Green Card Denial Deters Some Parents From Getting Kids Care
NPR January 24, 2019 By: Ashley Lopez … The report shows that after years of steady decline, the number (and percentage) of uninsured children in the U.S. increased in 2017, the first year of Trump’s presidency. Nationally, 5 percent of all kids are uninsured — and in Texas the rate rose to 10.7 percent, up from 9.8…
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Early childhood advocates marvel at ambition of California’s proposed budget
Center for Health Journalism January 24, 2019 By: Kellie Schmitt Prioritizing investments in early childhood is supported by brain development research, which shows a child’s earliest months and years — even before birth — are a key window of both opportunity and vulnerability, according to Elisabeth Wright Burak, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center…
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Report: Medicaid Work Requirement Could Lead to Health Care Loss
Public News Service January 31, 2019 As many as 68,000 Tennesseans would be affected by a proposal to require parents who now receive Medicaid to demonstrate that they’re working at least 20 hours a week, according to a new report. The report from the Tennessee Justice Center and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families is…
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Research Update: Evidence Suggests Medicaid Expansion Increases Access to Treatments for Opioid Use Disorder
In the past year, my colleagues at Georgetown University CCF have blogged about increases in funding to fight the opioid epidemic, Medicaid’s critical role in caring for infants exposed to opioids in utero, as well as Medicaid doubling the likelihood that Americans with opioid addiction will get the treatment they need. A new research report…
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CMS Weighing Decision that Would Lead to Loss of Health Coverage for Thousands of Tennessee Families Living in Poverty
Tennessee, a state that has not accepted the option to expand Medicaid to more low-income adults, has become the fifth state to ask CMS to impose a work or community service reporting requirement on parents with incomes at or below 98% of the federal poverty level. South Carolina is next in the queue. If the…
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Work Reporting Requirement for Tennessee Parents Would Harm Low-Income Families with Children
Introduction Tennessee is seeking federal permission to impose a work reporting requirement on low-income parents and caregivers receiving health coverage through Medicaid. Under the proposal, these beneficiaries ages 19 to 64 would have to document that they are working at least 20 hours a week or participating in job-training, education, or volunteer activities in order…
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Lack of ACA Navigator Funding Leads to Consumer Confusion, Decreased Enrollment
Open Enrollment is over in most states, and enrollment numbers are down slightlyfrom 8.8 million plan selections on healthcare.gov for plan year 2018 to 8.4 million plan selections for plan year 2019. Navigators thought the 2018 Open Enrollment was challenging, after a slew of policy changes including massive Navigator grant funding cuts, shortened enrollment period, 90 percent cuts to federal…
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The Proposed 2020 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters: Summary and Implications for States
On January 17, 2019 the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) released its annual draft rule governing core provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), including the operation of the marketplaces, benefit standards for health plans, and premium stabilization programs. Referred to as the “Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters” or NBPP, the…
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More Funds, Better Data Needed to Help Medicaid Patients
Medpage Today January 22, 2019 By; Joyce Frieden Have you ever used the Z56 code to describe one of your Medicaid patients? How about Z59? … The report seems to do a good job of taking stock of the need and what current efforts are being made in Medicaid to address social needs, Tricia Brooks, MBA,…
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How Are States Using Medicaid to Pay for Home Visiting? New Paper Offers More Clarity
As we’ve sought to identify concrete ways Medicaid can better support young children’s development, one of the clearest opportunities of high interest to policymakers is expanding home visiting programs for pregnant women and young children. Using Medicaid for home visiting is not a new concept, but a number of factors have raised the profile of…
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CMS approves Arizona’s tough Medicaid work requirement
Modern Healthcare January 18, 2019 By: Harris Meyer Arizona on Friday became the eighth state to receive CMS approval for a waiver to establish a Medicaid work requirement. … Arizona has not projected how many people will be disenrolled due to the work requirement, and has not estimated how much the program will cost to…
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Uninsured rate under Trump surges to highest level since Obamacare began
Los Angeles Times January 23, 2019 By: Noam Levey The percentage of American adults without health insurance surged upward in 2018, reaching levels not recorded since before President Trump took office, according to a new national survey that revealed widespread coverage losses over the last two years. … Yet an increasing body of evidence indicates…
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Changes To State Healthcare Could Affect Thousands
KOTV Oklahoma January 22, 2019 By: Grant Hermes Changes are on the way for Medicaid in Oklahoma, despite criticism and warnings from experts around the country who say new state policies and proposals could force thousands of Oklahoma families off coverage. In 2018, Oklahoma became the 11th state to call for at least 20-hours of…
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A Must Read for Medicaid Stakeholders Interested in Addressing the Social Determinants of Health
While addressing social needs has become the buzz in Medicaid, a blog in Health Affairs brings new clarity to how even the best efforts by health care providers fall short of addressing the underlying social determinants that perpetuate poor health. No doubt, there are many successes to be touted as the health care system helps…
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Arkansas’ Medicaid Work Reporting Rules Lead to Staggering Health Coverage Losses
Earlier this week, the state of Arkansas released its final round of data for 2018 for its controversial work reporting requirement policy. The data shows that an additional 1,232 adults lost their Medicaid coverage at the end of December, bringing the total Medicaid coverage loss since August to 18,164. The news motivated me to take…
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Trump is looking for a new way to cut Medicaid — without Congress
Vox By: Dylan Scott Two years in, senior Trump administration officials are still hunting for new ways to cut Medicaid. … Work requirements, in other words, could become a tool by which states can partially roll back Medicaid expansion or implement a neutered version of it. The same could be said of waiver provisions that…
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Researchers Estimate up to 13,000 Would Lose Medicaid Coverage Under Oklahoma Work Requirements
Public Radio Tulsa By: Matt Trotter Oklahoma wants adult Medicaid recipients to submit proof they’re working, volunteering or job training 20 hours a week. That could cause 4,000 to 13,000 people to lose coverage, according to Georgetown University researchers. “Because Oklahoma is a state that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the…
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California Adds Its Clout to States Battling High Drug Prices
The New York Times By: Katie Thomas Gavin Newsom dived into the highly charged debate over prescription drug prices in his first week as California’s governor, vowing action on a topic that has enraged the public but has proved resistant to easy fixes. His idea: Find strength in numbers. Within hours of taking office on…
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Trump Administration Plans Effort to Let States Remodel Medicaid
Wall Street Journal By: Stephanie Armour The Trump administration is readying guidance that could let states remodel their Medicaid programs to more closely resemble block grant proposals favored by Republicans during their failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, according to people familiar with the discussions. … “Whenever there has been an initiative to…
