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New Resources Underscore Importance of Adult Health Coverage to Young Children’s Well-Being
The news on the health and economic crises remains harrowing. The political debates about the best ways to address both can be numbing. Racism was already a public health crisis in the minds of many—the pandemic has only exposed and exacerbated what was not fully seen or acknowledged before. But it’s the poorest families, many…
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House Passes Bill to Give States Option to Extend Postpartum Medicaid Coverage to New Moms
Medicaid and CHIP cover nearly half of all births each year and have critical roles to play to ensure access to postpartum care that supports the lifelong health of mother and baby together. The Helping MOMS Act, passed with a bipartisan majority voice vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this week, would give states…
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State Leaders Advance Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Policy, Part 2
Four years after launching ZERO TO THREE’s Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Financing Policy Project (IECMH-FPP), we have learned a lot about opportunities to advance infant and early childhood mental health policies, even amidst a tough political climate and funding limitations. In an effort to highlight the remarkable accomplishments of IECMH-FPP states, we recently…
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Children’s Uninsured Rate Rises by Largest Annual Jump in More Than a Decade
[Editor’s Note: This report is now published here.] After reaching a historic low of 4.7 percent in 2016, the child uninsured rate began to increase in 2017, and as of 2019 jumped back up to 5.7 percent. This increase of a full percentage point translates to approximately 726,000 more children without health insurance since the…
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CMS Releases New Data on Decline in Pediatric Visits and Vaccination Rates with No Plan to Improve Care for Kids
CMS recently released a report on service use among children with Medicaid and CHIP during COVID-19. Perhaps the most newsworthy aspect of the report is that the data therein come from the much beleaguered Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) that my colleague, Tricia Brooks, has been following since CMS announced it in 2013. The…
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HHS “Good Guidance” Rule: Not so Good for Medicaid and CHIP
The Centers for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) recently issued a letter to State Medicaid Directors laying out ways in which state Medicaid agencies can advance value-based care. The 33-page SMD includes numerous references to requirements that states must meet if they want to implement VBP approaches, such as “states must have claims systems that…
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More Evidence Medicaid Work Requirements Don’t Actually Work
A new study from Ben Sommers and other researchers at Harvard University finds that Medicaid work requirements fail to promote employment but do result in more people losing their health coverage and may promote other negative health outcomes. The study, published in Health Affairs, found that negative economic consequences ensued as well – with medical…
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Proposed “Good Guidance” Regulations
The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted the following comments to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the proposed Good Guidance Practices regulations. CCF_good_guidance_comments-1
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Census Data Show Largest Annual Increase in Number of Uninsured Children in More Than a Decade
Despite the strength of the pre-pandemic economy in 2019, the number of uninsured children grew at an alarming rate according to newly released data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS data released today documents the largest annual increase in the number of uninsured kids from 2018 to 2019 since the survey…
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Medicaid Expansion Helped Close Coverage Gaps for Pregnant Women, New Study Finds
Medicaid expansion helped close coverage gaps for low-income women in the months before, during and after pregnancy, reducing the number of women who were uninsured during this critical time, new research published this month in Health Affairs found. The authors define “low-income” as a woman whose income is below 138% FPL, the eligibility limit for…
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New 50-State Scorecard Exposes Missed Opportunities to Address Health Equity
Today The Commonwealth Fund released its annual scorecard on state health system performance. The report pulls together 49 indicators of health coverage, spending, quality and outcomes data to rank state health system performance. The accompanying state profiles provide additional context on the rankings, allowing states to get a comprehensive look at each state’s health care…
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Recession And Medicaid Budgets: What Are The Options?
Health Affairs By: Allan Baumgarten and Katherine Hempstead The COVID-19 pandemic and related economic dislocation are having a major impact on state budgets, particularly their Medicaid programs. Medicaid is inherently counter-cyclical, meaning that enrollment and spending increase in response to economic downturns. Medicaid enrollment will grow as workers lose jobs and coverage. Forecasts range from…
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Medicaid Work Requirements in Arkansas Didn’t Boost Employment
The Fiscal Times By: Michael Rainey A new study of work requirements for Medicaid recipients in Arkansas finds that they did nothing to increase employment but did impose substantial hardships on those who lost coverage as a result of the requirements… Joan Alker, a researcher at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families who has…
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As Families Grapple with Schooling Stresses, Congress Must Act
Community Catalyst By: Eva Marie Stahl The Senate is on vacation until next week, having left Washington last month without delivering on the needed support that states and localities urgently require to support families and working people across the country who are living on the edge of financial and health disaster… In a recent survey,…
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Telehealth and Medicaid Expansion during COVID
RAC Monitor By: Knicole C. Emanuel Esq This article will explore Medicaid expansion during COVID-19. We all know that COVID has uprooted our lives. Telehealth is the new post-COVID norm, whereas it was in infancy pre-COVID. Perhaps the pandemic has spurred on Medicaid expansion as well. Everyone has more patients, and more ways to serve…
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Drug Manufacturers May Catch A Break On Medicaid Rebates For Opioid Treatment
Pink Pharma By: Sarah Karlin-Smith CMS believes a new law set to take effect this fall will prohibit Medicaid from collecting rebates on opioid use disorder treatments, Congressional offices and Medicaid stakeholders tell the Pink Sheet. Experts worry this interpretation could open the door for CMS to rule other drugs don’t qualify for rebates. ……
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New Report Underscores Urgent Need for Better Prenatal Health Care in Rural Areas
Earlier this summer, we called attention to the challenges that women in rural communities face during pregnancy and the postpartum period, and new research from Child Trends shows those challenges and health disparities extend to their young children as well. “Health Care Access for Infants and Toddlers in Rural Areas” found that rural infant and…
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Medicaid Managed Care for Children in Iowa: Not So Transparent
Is transparency an advantage for Medicaid managed care? Craig Kennedy, who heads Medicaid Health Plans of America, thinks so. (MHPA is a trade association for Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs)). In a recent op-ed in the Des Moines Register, Kennedy wrote: “… managed care provides more predictability and transparency than a fee-for-service system, in which…
