All
-
How Are States Using Medicaid to Pay for Home Visiting? New Paper Offers More Clarity
As we’ve sought to identify concrete ways Medicaid can better support young children’s development, one of the clearest opportunities of high interest to policymakers is expanding home visiting programs for pregnant women and young children. Using Medicaid for home visiting is not a new concept, but a number of factors have raised the profile of…
-
CMS approves Arizona’s tough Medicaid work requirement
Modern Healthcare January 18, 2019 By: Harris Meyer Arizona on Friday became the eighth state to receive CMS approval for a waiver to establish a Medicaid work requirement. … Arizona has not projected how many people will be disenrolled due to the work requirement, and has not estimated how much the program will cost to…
-
Uninsured rate under Trump surges to highest level since Obamacare began
Los Angeles Times January 23, 2019 By: Noam Levey The percentage of American adults without health insurance surged upward in 2018, reaching levels not recorded since before President Trump took office, according to a new national survey that revealed widespread coverage losses over the last two years. … Yet an increasing body of evidence indicates…
-
Changes To State Healthcare Could Affect Thousands
KOTV Oklahoma January 22, 2019 By: Grant Hermes Changes are on the way for Medicaid in Oklahoma, despite criticism and warnings from experts around the country who say new state policies and proposals could force thousands of Oklahoma families off coverage. In 2018, Oklahoma became the 11th state to call for at least 20-hours of…
-
A Must Read for Medicaid Stakeholders Interested in Addressing the Social Determinants of Health
While addressing social needs has become the buzz in Medicaid, a blog in Health Affairs brings new clarity to how even the best efforts by health care providers fall short of addressing the underlying social determinants that perpetuate poor health. No doubt, there are many successes to be touted as the health care system helps…
-
Arkansas’ Medicaid Work Reporting Rules Lead to Staggering Health Coverage Losses
Earlier this week, the state of Arkansas released its final round of data for 2018 for its controversial work reporting requirement policy. The data shows that an additional 1,232 adults lost their Medicaid coverage at the end of December, bringing the total Medicaid coverage loss since August to 18,164. The news motivated me to take…
-
Trump is looking for a new way to cut Medicaid — without Congress
Vox By: Dylan Scott Two years in, senior Trump administration officials are still hunting for new ways to cut Medicaid. … Work requirements, in other words, could become a tool by which states can partially roll back Medicaid expansion or implement a neutered version of it. The same could be said of waiver provisions that…
-
Researchers Estimate up to 13,000 Would Lose Medicaid Coverage Under Oklahoma Work Requirements
Public Radio Tulsa By: Matt Trotter Oklahoma wants adult Medicaid recipients to submit proof they’re working, volunteering or job training 20 hours a week. That could cause 4,000 to 13,000 people to lose coverage, according to Georgetown University researchers. “Because Oklahoma is a state that has not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, the…
-
California Adds Its Clout to States Battling High Drug Prices
The New York Times By: Katie Thomas Gavin Newsom dived into the highly charged debate over prescription drug prices in his first week as California’s governor, vowing action on a topic that has enraged the public but has proved resistant to easy fixes. His idea: Find strength in numbers. Within hours of taking office on…
-
Trump Administration Plans Effort to Let States Remodel Medicaid
Wall Street Journal By: Stephanie Armour The Trump administration is readying guidance that could let states remodel their Medicaid programs to more closely resemble block grant proposals favored by Republicans during their failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, according to people familiar with the discussions. … “Whenever there has been an initiative to…
-
Updated Georgetown study finds Medicaid work requirements would harm Oklahoma families
Oklahoma Hospital Association An estimated 4,000 to 13,000 of Oklahoma’s poorest parents could lose health coverage if the federal government approves the state’s request to impose new work reporting rules on parents and caregivers receiving Medicaid, according to a new study from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The coverage losses would predominately…
-
Georgetown University’s CCF Weighs in on Proposed Changes to Managed Care Rule
Last November, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed changes to its Medicaid Managed Care Rule. As I explained at the time, these proposals can be seen as part of a broader effort by the agency to weaken access protections for children, parents, and other Medicaid beneficiaries, not just in managed care, but…
-
Help Shape Child and Adolescent Health Priorities by Submitting Comments on Healthy People 2030
Planning is now underway for Healthy People 2030 and advocates have an opportunity to help shape child and adolescent health priorities for the next decade. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is soliciting written comments on the proposed objectives for Healthy People 2030 until 5:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 17, 2019.…
-
What does the Partial Government Shutdown Mean for the Affordable Care Act Marketplaces?
As the clock ticks, the likelihood increases that we are in the midst of the longest-ever shutdown of U.S. government agencies. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers are either furloughed or working without pay and critical government services are going unperformed. For the millions of Americans who rely on the federal government for their health care, many likely have…
-
Oklahoma’s Medicaid Waiver Proposal Will Harm Its Most Vulnerable Families
Unfortunately, our series of reports looking at harmful state Medicaid work requirement rules targeting very poor parents is getting longer. Today we are releasing an updated look at Oklahoma’s proposal, which is currently up for public comment at the federal level. Six states now have active proposals – Mississippi, Alabama, and South Dakota have proposals…
-
Medicaid Waiver Proposal For Oklahoma Medicaid Beneficiaries Would Harm Low-Income Families With Children
Introduction Through an amendment to its Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waiver, Oklahoma is seeking federal permission to impose work reporting rules on very low-income parents and caregivers age 19-50 receiving health coverage through Medicaid. Parents of children below age six would be exempt. Under the proposal, which would be phased in, these beneficiaries would have…
-
Number of uninsured children rises: report
Journal Inquirer By: Zachary Vasile After a three-year-long ebb, the number of children in Connecticut without health insurance is once again rising. According to a new report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, about 24,000 children in the state lacked health coverage in 2017, amounting to about 3.1 percent of all people…
-
DeSantis taps Mary Mayhew to lead Florida health agency
Orlando Sentinel By: Naseem Miller Mary Mayhew, director of the nation’s Medicaid program, is resigning after three months on the job to become Florida’s top health regulator, the state’s governor-elect announced. As secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, Mayhew will replace Justin Senior, who resigned in November to become CEO of the Safety…
-
Report: HUSKY Health Gets High Marks, Could Do More
Public News Service Connecticut is providing quality health care to more than 330,000 children but could reach more, according to a new report. The report from the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families ranked the state 12th in the nation for the rate of children covered by its HUSKY Health program, which includes Medicaid…
-
New CCF Issue Brief on Strengthening Effective Medicaid Drug Rebate Program
Today, we issued our fifth issue brief in our Future of Children’s Health Coverage series. It focuses on how to build upon and improve the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program at both the federal and state levels in order to help state Medicaid programs better address their rising prescription drug costs. This, in turn, would ensure continued…
