New Report Finds Alarming Trends in Maternal and Infant Health in Idaho and Calls for Improvements to Health Care Access

By Ivy Smith, Health Policy Specialist at Idaho Voices for Children Infant mortality in Idaho rose 18% and maternal mortality rose a staggering 121.5% from 2019 to 2021, according the Idaho Maternal and Infant Health Report 2023 published by Idaho Kids Covered, a statewide coalition of health care advocates and stakeholders supported by Idaho Voices […]

Transitional Medical Assistance (TMA) and the Unwinding

Late last month, CMS released long-awaited guidance on Medicaid coverage for low-income working parents in the context of the unwinding of continuous coverage. Technically, this coverage is a mandatory eligibility category known as transitional medical assistance, or TMA, because it was originally designed to help parents transition from Medicaid to private insurance coverage through the […]

House Passes Bipartisan Medicaid and CHIP Behavioral Health Provisions, Senate Committees Act: Here’s a Breakdown

Last week, the House of Representatives passed its Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act. Passing on a broad bipartisan basis, the bill would reauthorize certain provisions of the 2018 SUPPORT Act such as those supporting individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) like requiring state Medicaid programs to provide coverage for medication-assisted treatment in addition […]

A Tipping Point for School Medicaid Expansion

By Jessie Mandle, National Program Director of the Healthy Schools Campaign Since 2014, school districts have been allowed to bill Medicaid for all health services provided to all Medicaid-enrolled students, instead of being limited to reimbursement for services included in a student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP). However, states have been slow to leverage this opportunity […]

Transparency in Medicaid Managed Care: The Wait Goes On

Last month, the Centers for Medicaid & CHIP Services (CMCS) issued a Center Informational Bulletin, “Medicaid and CHIP Managed Care Monitoring and Oversight Tools.”  Among other items, this CIB discusses the Managed Care Program Annual Reports that state Medicaid agencies are required to submit to CMS.  MCPARs are each state’s accounting of how each of […]