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Medicaid Beneficiaries Ask the Supreme Court: Do We Have a Friend in You?
On November 8, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in what my colleague Leo Cuello has called “the most consequential case you’ve never heard of:” Health and Hospital Corporation of Marion County v. Talevski. The case began as a lawsuit against a county-owned nursing facility in Indiana by a now-deceased resident who alleged that…
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The End of Medicaid Rights May Be Upon Us: You Need to Know About the Talevski Case
The Supreme Court, the same court that trashed decades of settled precedent to overturn Roe and, in NFIB, for-the-first-time-ever ruled that a federal spending program (the Medicaid expansion) was “coercive” upon states, that court, is about to decide whether to completely wipe out the rights of Medicaid enrollees. Buckle up, friends. On November 8, the…
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HHS Announces New Planning Grants for Medicaid-Funded Behavioral Health Clinic Demonstration
Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it will be awarding up to $15 million in new planning grants to states as part of its national expansion of the Medicaid-funded Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) demonstration program under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. The announcement comes on the heels of…
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Comments on Temporary Increase in FMAP in Response to Covid-19 Public Health Emergency Reopening of Public Comment
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted comments to CMS on the “Medicaid Program; Temporary Increase in Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) in Response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE); Reopening of Public Comment Period”. CCF Comments IFR-C MOE 2022
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Unwinding Wednesday #8: Key Data to Monitor Unwinding of the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Protection (Part 2)
As we prepare for the eventual end of the Medicaid continuous coverage protection, a key focus here at CCF has been on monitoring the unwinding process. In last week’s Unwinding Wednesday, my colleague Tricia Brooks highlighted data such as the Medicaid and CHIP performance indicator (PI) data that can be useful in monitoring the unwinding.…
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Gracias a las leyes federales, hay menos niños sin seguro medico en Georgia, pero eso podría cambiar pronto
Georgia ocupa el cuarto lugar entre los estados con el peor número de niños sin seguro médico, con un estimado de 176,000 niños sin cobertura de salud. Comparado con los estados vecinos del sur, Georgia tiene un desempeño insatisfactorio. La tasa de niños sin seguro en todos los estados vecinos—con excepción de la Florida—es mucho…
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The Number of Uninsured Children in Georgia Has Declined Thanks to Federal Law But May Rise Soon
The state of Georgia has the fourth highest number of uninsured children with an estimated 176,000 Georgia children going without health coverage. Georgia performs poorly in comparison to its neighbors in the deep south. All of Georgia’s neighboring states—with the exception of Florida—have better child uninsured rates (see Figure 1). Children without health insurance have…
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Mandatory Reporting on Medicaid Quality Measures: What Did Congress Intend?
In August, CMS posted its proposed rule to codify Congressional action taken in 2018 to mandate state reporting of the Child Core Set and the Adult Behavioral Health Core Set of quality measures in Medicaid and CHIP, starting in 2024. Until 2024, state reporting on the core sets is voluntary. I did a quick scan…
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Comments on Mandatory Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Core Set Reporting Proposed Rule
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted the following comments on Medicaid Program and CHIP; Mandatory Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Core Set Reporting; Proposed Rule – CMS-2440-P. CCF Comments Core Set Quality NPRM 10-20 Final
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Unwinding Wednesday #7: Key Data to Monitor Unwinding of the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Protection (Part 1)
The ninth webinar in our unwinding series with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities focused on three sources of data to monitor the impact as states begin to process disenrollments once the Medicaid continuous coverage provision is lifted. We discussed 1) the data that states have been required to report as part of the…
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Webinar: Medicaid Continuous Eligibility for Children up to age 6 in Oregon
On September 28, CMS approved Oregon’s groundbreaking proposal to provide continuous eligibility (CE) in Medicaid and CHIP for children from birth to age 6 as a component of the state’s school readiness and health care transformation strategies. The approval also creates a two-year CE for all beneficiaries ages 6 and older, along with a number…
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California’s Medicaid Managed Care Procurement: A Transparency Event
On August 25, California’s Medicaid agency announced its selections of managed care organizations (MCOs) to serve some 6.4 million beneficiaries in 21 counties beginning in 2024. The selections, which resulted from the procurement that the agency launched with a Request for Proposal (RFP) in February—a potential game-changer—did not meet with universal applause. Losing bidders have…
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Proposed Rule Provides Opportunity to Advance Behavioral Health Quality
As my colleague, Maggie Clark, wrote about on Say Ahhh! earlier this week – we can’t improve what we don’t measure. This is why CMS’s recently proposed rule on reporting of quality measures in Medicaid and CHIP is critical to advancing behavioral health care quality. The proposed rule, open for comment through October 21, requires…
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HHS Secretary Becerra Extends the Public Health Emergency into 2023
HHS Secretary Becerra has declared that the COVID-19 public health emergency is extended for another 90 days through January 11, 2023. This means that February 1, 2023, is the earliest that the Medicaid continuous coverage protection would be lifted and states could begin to disenroll people after completing a full renewal and review of ongoing…
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Unwinding Wednesday #6: Communications Toolkits Offer a Variety of Messages and Materials to Help Mitigate Coverage Losses
This week on Unwinding Wednesday, we are digging into the communications materials and toolkits found on our 50-state Unwinding Tracker – arguably one of the most critical elements of the tracker for ensuring individuals with Medicaid coverage are adequately prepared for the unwinding. The development of comprehensive communications materials by state Medicaid agencies is vital…
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Restoring the Public Charge Policy
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a final regulation that restores longstanding public charge policy, effective December 23, 2022. This comes after attempts by the Trump Administration to radically expand the scope and nature of the public charge test, making it much harder for some immigrants to adjust their status and discouraging many more…
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Proposed Rule Offers Opportunity to Help Advance Maternal Health Equity
We can’t improve what we don’t measure. That’s why it is important for all who want to improve maternal and child health to take a look at a proposed rule now up for comment that provides an important opportunity to increase transparency and accountability for the quality of care delivered through Medicaid and CHIP. The…
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Medicaid and CHIP Continuous Coverage for Children
States have the option under current law to provide 12 months of continuous health coverage for children in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) so that children can maintain coverage throughout the year even as their family income fluctuates from month to month. Under this option, states allow a child to remain enrolled…
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Comments on Tennessee’s Proposed “Amendment 4” to TennCare III Demonstration
The following organizations joined Georgetown University Center for Children and Families in submitting comments to HHS regarding Tennessee’s proposed “Amendment 4” to its TennCare III Demonstration. ACNM Tennessee Affiliate American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) American Lung Association Autistic Self Advocacy Network Center for Law and Social Policy Center on Budget and Policy Priorities…
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Medicaid Managed Care: OIG, MLRs, and the Future of Oversight
Last month, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report that speaks volumes about the oversight of Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs). As the OIG delicately puts it, CMS has “opportunities” to “strengthen States’ oversight.” An alternative framing would be that CMS and many states have not met minimum standards of stewardship for Medicaid…
