2023
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Federal Medicaid Expansion Incentives Offer Another Tool for States to Continue Coverage as Pandemic-Era Medicaid Rules End
Our new factsheet, “State Fiscal Incentives for Medicaid Expansion Continue after the End of Public Health Emergency” lays out the substantial federal financial incentives for Medicaid expansion remaining available to non-expansion states after April 1, 2023 when states begin the process of ending Medicaid continuous coverage pandemic protections, which allowed beneficiaries to remain enrolled for…
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Fact Sheet: State Fiscal Incentives for Medicaid Expansion Continue After End of Public Health Emergency
The end of the continuous coverage requirement will exacerbate and highlight the coverage gap in the 11 states still refusing the federal Medicaid expansion. Importantly, generous federal fiscal incentives are available to states that newly expand Medicaid. These incentives were enacted in 2020, and will remain available on a permanent basis to those 11 states.…
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Unwinding Wednesday #21: FCC Gives Green Light for MCOs and Other State Medicaid Contractors to Use Text Messaging
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has encouraged states to communicate with enrollees through non-mail means, and text messages and automated calls are an efficient and cost-effective way to contact consumers. But there were concerns about compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which was enacted to protect consumers from certain practices that…
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Medicaid Managed Care Financial Results for 2022: Another Big Year for the Big Five
The 2022 earnings reports for the “Big Five”—CVS Health (Aetna), Centene, Elevance Health (formerly Anthem), Molina, and United Health Group—are now in. As expected, combined Medicaid enrollment for the “Big Five” increased during 2022 by 3.3 million to 43.2 million, an increase of 8.2 percent (Table 1). (If children are enrolled in “Big Five” MCOs…
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Webinar Series: School Medicaid Matters 2023
Over the next couple of months, CCF will be collaborating with the Healthy Schools Campaign and Community Catalyst to host a series of webinars focused on opportunities to strengthen the role of Medicaid in schools. The series kicked off earlier this month with a webinar featuring former CMS Administrator Vikki Wacchino, who walked through what…
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CCF, Pediatricians Urge State Leaders to Shield Children from Losing Medicaid Coverage
State-by-State Report Shows Medicaid Now Covers More Than Half of U.S. Children This week we teamed up with our colleagues at the American Academy of Pediatrics to release a report and discuss the high stakes for children when the Medicaid continuous coverage protection expires. Medicaid and CHIP now cover 54% of children in the United…
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Unwinding Wednesday #20: All States Must Submit Their Medicaid Continuous Coverage Unwinding Renewal Reports by Today!
Today’s the day! All states are required to submit their state renewal reports to CMS today. States that initiated their first batch of renewals in February were expected to submit their reports on February 1. And all other states are required to submit the reports today. What are the state renewal reports? To better…
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Comments on Oklahoma Medicaid Waiver Extension Application
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted these comments to CMS regarding the Oklahoma Medicaid waiver extension application.
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Comments on Kansas Medicaid Waiver Extension Application
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted these comments to CMS regarding the Kansas Medicaid waiver extension application.
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Comments on New Mexico Medicaid Waiver Extension Application
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted these comments to CMS regarding the New Mexico Medicaid waiver extension application.
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Comments on Rhode Island Medicaid Waiver Extension Request
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted these comments to CMS regarding the Rhode Island Comprehensive Demonstration section 1115 extension application.
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Methodology for Report “Child Uninsured Rate Could Rise Sharply if States Don’t Proceed with Caution”
Data Sources This report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) uses data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) State Medicaid and CHIP Applications, Eligibility Determinations, and Enrollment Data to analyze total and child enrollment in Medicaid and/or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by state. All states and…
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Medicaid/CHIP Enrollment Report Release and Webinar Recording
High Stakes for Children When Medicaid Continuous Coverage Protection Expires Wednesday, February 15 @ 11:30 a.m. ET Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) released a new report with state-by-state data showing that 54% of children are covered by Medicaid/CHIP today. When states resume regular operations after Medicaid’s coverage protection expires on April 1,…
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Mississippi Women of Reproductive Age Face Many Barriers to Good Health
Mississippi Women of Reproductive Age Face Many Barriers to Good Health In April 2022, a new state policy option, recently made permanent by federal law, went into effect that provided states a simplified route to extend postpartum coverage in Medicaid from 60 days to a full 12 months after a child’s birth. If implemented in…
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Unwinding Wednesday #19: What Can Application Processing Times Tell Us About State Readiness for the Unwinding?
In the past, I’ve blogged a lot about the Medicaid and CHIP performance indicators that states have been required to report since 2014. Among those indicators, states must report the share of MAGI-based (i.e., non-disabled, non-elderly Medicaid groups) applications completed in five buckets: less than 24 hours (also known as real-time determination),…
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Medicaid Managed Care: A Promising New Point of Accountability
In most states, a central challenge for Medicaid is holding managed care organizations (MCOs) accountable for their performance for enrollees, especially children and families. Medicaid MCOs are collectively responsible for the health of tens of millions (with an “m”) of Medicaid beneficiaries and the proper use of hundreds of billions (with a “b”) of federal…
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CMS Announces Important Consumer Protection for People Losing Medicaid/CHIP
States will begin the process of redetermining Medicaid eligibility for over 80 million people across the country very soon, and some states may be starting the process today. People will not lose Medicaid coverage until April 1 at the earliest, but once disenrollments begin, the number of people losing Medicaid coverage could skyrocket overnight. Some…
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Unwinding Wednesday #18: What Does the End of COVID Emergency Declarations Mean for Medicaid/CHIP?
On Monday, the Biden Administration announced that it would end the COVID-19 national emergency and public health emergency declarations effective May 11th. Some folks may have stopped paying attention or holding their breath in anticipation of the announcement of the end of the PHE once the Medicaid continuous enrollment protection was…
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Child Uninsured Rate Could Rise Sharply if States Don’t Proceed with Caution
Policy Landscape Medicaid is the backbone of the nation’s health care system providing coverage to those for whom private insurance is not available or affordable and is now the primary coverage source (along with CHIP) for America’s children. Medicaid covers approximately 83.5 million people (including more than 34.2 million children) — a 31 percent increase…
