Latest
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Standards for Provider Network Adequacy in Medicaid and the Marketplaces
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued final rules for provider network adequacy in Qualified Health Plans (QHPs) offering coverage in the Marketplaces that the federal government operates through HealthCare.gov. Under these rules, which come with the snappy title, “Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters” and the even snappier initialism (NBPP), CMS…
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Medicaid Expansion Narrows Maternal Health Coverage Gaps, But Racial Disparities Persist (Online Chartbook)
Introduction The United States is experiencing a maternal mortality crisis. The nation has the highest maternal mortality rate of any industrialized country in the world.[note]E. Declercq, & L. Zephyrin, “Maternal Mortality in the United States: A Primer,” The Commonwealth Fund (December 2020), available at https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefreport/2020/dec/maternal-mortality-united-states-primer.[/note] More than 750 women died of maternal causes in the…
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Decline in Routine Childhood Vaccinations Puts Children, Families and Communities at Risk of Outbreak
In May 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that provider orders for non-influenza childhood vaccines through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program had decreased by a total of about 11.7 million doses during the COVID-19 pandemic. These numbers are shockingly high, but likely underestimate the total number of missed doses. (The…
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Expanding Medicaid Would Help Close Coverage Gap for Latino Children and Parents
Introduction The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has lowered the uninsured rate for children and families nationally, but its impact varies across the country based on whether a state has adopted the ACA’s Medicaid expansion to cover more adults.1 For Latino children and families, Medicaid serves an especially important role; while Latinos are more likely to…