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Study: Kentucky’s Rural Areas Benefit Most From Medicaid Expansion
WFPL News Louisville By: Lisa Gillespie The number of people who gained insurance because of the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, was the largest in rural areas and small towns across the country. And Kentucky saw one of the biggest gains in health insurance in its small towns and rural areas. According to a new…
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Archived Webinar: Medical Necessity and EPSDT: Tools for Providers and Advocates
This webinar provides an overview of medical necessity definitions across the United States and best practices for ensuring children receive medically necessary services. Watch the webinar
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African American Women Mayors Champion Policies to Improve Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes
The United States has a dismal track record when it comes to maternal and infant mortality. One of the wealthiest countries in the world, the U.S. has fallen behind and now ranks 32nd in maternal mortality and 33rd in infant mortality out of the 36 wealthiest nations. Within the U.S., the infant mortality rate varies…
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Medicaid expansion leads to decrease in uninsured adults in rural Colorado, study finds
The Denver Post By: Jessica Seaman The uninsured rate for low-income adults has dropped 29 percentage points since Colorado expanded Medicaid — the largest decrease experienced by a state, according to a new study. … The report’s findings highlight the role Medicaid plays in rural communities, which have a higher number of uninsured patients and…
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Uninsured Rates Dropped Sharply in Medicaid Expansion States
CQ Roll Call By: Misty Williams The uninsured rate for poor Americans living in rural areas dropped sharply in states that expanded Medicaid under the 2010 health care law, compared with those that rejected expansion, a new study finds. In rural areas and small towns in expansion states, the uninsured rate for low-income adults stood…
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More States Link Maternal Depression Screenings to Well-Child Visits
More than twice the number of states now cover maternal depression screenings in Medicaid well child visits, up to 25 states from 11 states just one year ago. This is good news for mothers and children, and comes from an update of the National Center for Children in Poverty’s two-generation state policy profiles. The profiles…
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Rural Residents and Communities Have Much at Stake in Medicaid Expansion
Last year, working with our partners at the University of North Carolina’s Rural Health Project, we released a report that underscored the critical role that Medicaid plays in rural areas and small towns with populations below 50,000. This year Jack Hoadley, Mark Holmes and I took a look at how Medicaid expansion has impacted these same…
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Health Insurance Coverage in Small Towns and Rural America: The Role of Medicaid Expansion
Introduction Medicaid has been a key factor in lowering the percentage of Americans who lack health insurance. Nationally, the uninsured rate for all Americans under the age of 65 (adults and children) fell dramatically between 2010 and 2016 from 18.2 percent to 10.4 percent, rising slightly to 10.7 percent in 2017. Expansion of Medicaid coverage…
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PolitiFact: Did Dino Rossi Take Away Health Care Coverage From 45,000 Children?
PolitiFact By: Manuela Tobias Did Dino Rossi, a Republican Washington state senator running for U.S. Congress, once take away coverage from 45,000 children? That’s what an attack ad by the House Majority PAC claimed. … Using data from the Medical Assistance Administration, the University of Washington Health Policy Analysis Program found most children leaving Medicaid…
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Medicaid Expansion on Ballots Across U.S. in Midterm Vote
The Washington Times By: Tom Howell Jr. Andrew Gillum, the Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Florida, says the state has left some 700,000 poor residents without health coverage by refusing to sign up for Obamacare’s expansion of Medicaid. … “We had an opportunity to expand Medicaid for over 700,000 of the most medically needy people in…
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Clearing Up Confusion about the Impact of the CHIP Funding Rescission in Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Conference Agreement
In June, the Senate rejected a Trump Administration proposal to rescind federal funding for a variety of programs including the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). At the time, we had raised significant concerns because the Administration’s rescission package would have eliminated $2 billion from CHIP’s Child Enrollment Contingency Fund. Those $2 billion in funds…
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Clarifying Medicaid Billing Practices Can Help States Prioritize Young Children’s Healthy Emotional Development
Evidence continues to mount that healthy social and emotional development in infants and toddlers underpins a lifetime of healthy physical development. But Medicaid policy and practice solutions to improve infant and early childhood mental health are not always clear, even when the importance of early diagnosis and treatment is well understood. A new report by…
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Proposed Rule Would Make Matters Worse for Immigrant Children Held in Detention – Comments Due Nov. 6
About a year ago, the Administration reversed longstanding immigration policy and started separating children from their parents at the US-Mexico border. Over just a few months, thousands of children were separated from their parents. The issue drew a lot of media attention, as medical and child welfare experts pointed out that research shows the Administration…
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Public Comments are Virtually Unanimous Against Mississippi’s Harmful Medicaid Proposal
Last month, federal CMS reopened the public comment period on Mississippi’s proposed Section 1115 Medicaid work requirements waiver at the same time as Kentucky’s comment period was reopened. Mississippi’s proposal has not garnered as much attention as Kentucky’s, which as regular readers of SayAhhh! know, is currently on hold due to a federal court decision.…
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New Census Data Reveal Troubling Signs for Children’s Health Coverage
Last week, the Census Bureau partially released the Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC) of the 2017 Current Population Survey (CPS) and the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) health insurance data. In the past we have celebrated dramatic gains in health coverage for children as the share of uninsured children continued to decline. But this…
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How Will Outcome of Governor’s Race Affect Healthcare? Depends on Florida Legislature
Miami Herald By: Elizabeth Koh and Kirby Wilson Even if Democrats take back the governor’s mansion, don’t expect Medicaid expansion — let alone Medicare for all — in Florida any time soon. … Democrats hope to seize on the activist energy around the issue, holding rallies in Florida and spotlighting what they say are Republican…
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Medicaid Rolls Set to be Slashed Under Trump-Approved Work Rules
The Hill By: Jessie Hellman The thousands of people who lost Medicaid coverage this month in Arkansas for not following newly implemented work requirements may be a sign of what’s to come in other GOP-led states. … “This policy is clearly not designed to help people find work. It’s designed to take them off Medicaid,”…
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More Medicare Advantage Upcoming Could Follow Court Ruling
Modern Healthcare By: Shelby Livingston A federal judge’s recent decision to vacate a 2014 CMS rule that UnitedHealthcare said resulted in underpayment for Medicare Advantage insurers leaves the federal government with fewer tools to combat upcoding practices that cost the taxpayer-funded Medicare program billions of dollars. … Edwin Park, research professor at Georgetown University’s Center…
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Florida Uninsured Rate Increases, Tops National Average
WJXT News4Jax By: Christine Sexton More than 2.6 million people in Florida lacked health insurance at some point in 2017, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau. That means about 12.9 percent of the state’s population last year was uninsured — up from 12.5 percent in 2016 — as Florida continued to…
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Arkansas to Drop Almost 4,400 From Medicaid Over Trump’s Work Requirement
Bloomberg By: John Tozzi An Arkansas policy backed by the Trump administration that requires people to have a job or lose Medicaid coverage will drop 4,353 people from the health program. … “Proponents of work requirements have it backwards,” said Joan Alker, executive director of the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University. “Providing…
