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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…
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House Republican Study Committee Budget Plan Includes Draconian Medicaid Cuts
House Republican leaders continue to threaten debt default unless the Biden Administration and Congressional Democrats accede to their demands for severe budget cuts. So far, House Republicans have not spelled out the specific budget cuts they are seeking as the price for agreeing to raise the debt ceiling, including to Medicaid. But last year’s Republican…
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The ACA’s Preventive Services Benefit Is in Jeopardy: What Can States Do to Preserve Access?
By Justin Giovannelli, Sabrina Corlette, and Madeline O’Brien, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms A federal judge is poised to gut one of the most popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA requires that most private health plans cover preventive services, such as certain cancer screenings and immunizations, without imposing cost sharing on…
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Hundreds of Thousands of Children Could Lose Coverage in Florida Alone as U.S. Approaches High Stakes Medicaid Unwinding
As readers of SayAhhh! know, Congress has given the green light to states to begin checking eligibility for all Medicaid beneficiaries who have been protected from disenrollment by federal law since the Families First Covid Relief Act passed in March 2020. Terminations can begin on April 1, 2023; states have a year to complete the…
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Mothers’ Mental Health Challenges Predated COVID-19, Medicaid Policy and Other Solutions Needed, Report Finds
American families with children faced significant challenges during the pandemic due to school closures, lost jobs and isolation, and mothers reported higher rates of anxiety than fathers as they took on more caregiving responsibilities or even left their paid jobs. A full 50 percent of women ages 18 to 64 reported needing mental health services…
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New Data Underscores Need to Catch up on Routine Childhood Vaccinations
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released updated data on vaccination coverage among kindergartners, showing a continued decline in the share of children with the recommended doses of routine childhood vaccines needed to prevent the spread of harmful diseases. The report includes data on vaccination rates by state for four vaccines: measles, mumps,…
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Webinar Series: Unwinding the COVID-19 Medicaid Continuous Eligibility Provision
When the COVID-19 public health emergency ends, state Medicaid agencies face the daunting task of resuming normal eligibility and enrollment operations. It’s imperative that community partners and other stakeholders focus on this unprecedented challenge to help ensure that eligible children and families do not lose Medicaid coverage during the unwinding. The Center on Budget and…
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Unwinding Wednesday #17: It’s Imperative for States to Use the 2023 Federal Poverty Levels During the Unwinding
The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) has released the 2023 federal poverty levels (FPL). As expected, there was a notable increase in the poverty threshold stemming from inflation that will help families keep pace with rising costs. On average, the FPLs rose by about 8 percent, ranging from 7.3…
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Funding for Community Health Workers Authorized in Consolidated Appropriations Act – How could this help children and families?
We’ve written about several of the exciting health provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 that was signed into law in December here on Say Ahhh!: to recap, Joan Alker wrote about the permanent mandatory 12-month continuous eligibility requirement and other important provisions, Tricia Brooks detailed the new guardrails and transparency requirements as states…
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Implementing Changes to Medicaid Coverage for Former Foster Youth Could Be a Long, Bumpy Path but States Have Easier Option Available
One of the most popular provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) – allowing young adults to stay on their parent’s health plan until age 26 – would neglect a vulnerable group were it not for another ACA provision extending Medicaid to former foster youth (FFY). Unlike other young adults, youth transitioning out of foster…
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Unwinding Wednesday #16: Are State Eligibility Systems Ready for the Unwinding?
As we approach the starting line for unwinding the Medicaid continuous coverage protection on March 31, 2023, states are busy finalizing their unwinding plans and making sure their systems are ready to go. Medicaid IT systems are complex, and yet they are at the heart of eligibility and enrollment. Done well, systems can greatly streamline…
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CMS Releases Key Information on Unwinding the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Requirement
CMCS has released a timely informational bulletin (CIB) with details about the implementation of the unwinding provisions enacted by Congress just before the end of the year. As previously described in this blog, the 2023 Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) ends the Medicaid continuous coverage protection as of March 31, 2023. While the CAA does not…
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Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023: Medicaid and CHIP Provisions Explained
On December 29, 2022, President Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (P.L. 117-328).[1] The Consolidated Appropriations Act includes a number of provisions related to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). This includes, among others, delinking the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement from the COVID-19 public health emergency and starting its unwinding…
