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  • Families with Young Children Need More Support During COVID-19, Surveys Show

    Maggie Clark

    Since April, the researchers at University of Oregon’s Center for Translational Neuroscience have been conducting a weekly national survey of households with children age 5 and under and the findings are clear: families with young children are stressed, and they’re increasingly facing hunger and unemployment. These challenges, the authors write, are, “negatively affecting caregiver well-being,…

  • Missouri Voters Approve Medicaid Expansion

    Adam Searing

    Missouri voters joined 38 other states (including DC) and adopted Medicaid expansion yesterday by a vote of 53% to 47%. The vote gave Missouri the distinction of being the sixth state to pass Medicaid expansion by a ballot vote, usually over the objections of Republican leadership in each state. The vote followed a familiar rural/urban…

  • Medicaid Managed Care Transparency: Another Leap Forward

    Andy Schneider

    Last October, transparency in Medicaid managed care took a leap forward with the publication of a path-breaking study by Dr. Andrew Bindman and his colleagues at the University of California at San Francisco.  The researchers examined the performance of individual managed care organizations (MCOs) participating in the state’s Medicaid program with respect to quality of…

  • Medicaid Expansion Will Benefit Missouri Kids

    Joan Alker

    Next week, on August 4th, voters in Missouri will have a chance to weigh in on Medicaid expansion — becoming the 6th state to do so. Oklahoma voters just passed a similar expansion measure on June 30 of this year, leaving only 13 states left still refusing federal Medicaid funding to extend affordable health coverage…

  • Medicaid and CHIP Provide Health Coverage to More than Half of Children of Color

    Tricia Brooks

    With the heightened awareness of racial inequality in the news, we wanted to refresh our research showing the importance of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to children of color. More than half of American Indian or Native Alaskan, Black, other or multi-racial, and Hispanic children rely on Medicaid and CHIP as their…

  • Redirecting Medicaid MCO Gains to Offset Network Provider Losses in the Time of COVID-19

    Andy Schneider

    2020 Q2 marked the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic, stay-at-home orders, school closures, social distancing, and a recession.  Families put off going to the doctor’s office for routine, non-emergency care.  Primary care physician practices and clinics that bill for each visit saw sharp drops in their revenues as patients stayed at home (pediatricians’ offices were…

  • Coalition Calls on Secretary Azar to Use Medicaid Waiver Authority to Promote Health Equity

    Joan Alker

    In light of the heightened national attention to the injustice of structural racism, a lengthy list of diverse national and state groups representing patients, providers, racial justice organizations and others sent a letter to Secretary Azar urging him to take two immediate steps with respect to pending Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration requests that would help…

  • Congress Should Provide Additional Medicaid Funding and Also Block Medicaid Fiscal Accountability Rule

    Edwin Park

    Despite the House passing the HEROES Act (H.R. 6800) in May, the Senate has not considered further major legislation to respond to the worsening COVID-19 health and economic crisis.  But it is expected that Congress will finally act over the next two weeks.  As I have explained, an additional, substantial increase in the federal Medicaid…

  • School Reopening Debate Highlights Student Health Concerns

    Phyllis Jordan

    The political debate over reopening schools has brought children’s health to the forefront of the nation’s coronavirus crisis, often in ways contrary to expectations. Conservative leaders, pushing for in-person instruction, are citing the social-emotional needs of children stuck at home for months. Liberal leaders, urging caution, are calling for local control of schools. From a…

  • Proposed Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility Rule Overhaul Back on the Docket at OMB

    Tricia Brooks

    In a speech to the National Association of Medicaid Directors last November, Administrator Seema Verma announced that CMS would be overhauling regulations to tighten the standards for eligibility verification in Medicaid and CHIP. For many months, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was listed on the regulatory review dashboard at the Office of Information and…

  • How much will COVID-19 drive up uninsured numbers? New report underscores how hard it is to know

    Joan Alker

    The year 2020 is certainly going to be one to remember in the history books. The current recession associated with the pandemic is undoubtedly going to result in more people enrolling in public coverage and, sadly, will also drive up the uninsured rate in the U.S (especially in states that have not expanded Medicaid). But…

  • New CCF Issue Brief on How Medicaid Block Grants and Per Capita Caps Would Harm State Funding of K-12 Education

    Edwin Park

    Today, we released a new issue brief focusing on how radically restructuring federal financing of the Medicaid program by converting it to a block grant or a per capita cap would impose large, negative pressures on state budgets.  That, in turn, could lead to significant reductions in state funding of K-12 education, which would result…

  • CCF Comments to Trump Administration Medicaid Drug Rebate Rule

    Edwin Park

    CCF has submitted public comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the proposed Medicaid drug rebate rule which, among other things, would change how drug manufacturers report “best price” under the effective Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. As I have explained, the proposed rule’s best price reporting changes are intended to facilitate…

  • Medicaid Enrollment Increases Show Surprisingly Wide Variability Among States

    Joan Alker

    We’ve continued to look at state administrative data on Medicaid enrollment changes, and we are seeing curious differences among 22 states that have posted May enrollment data. Our baseline for Medicaid enrollment data is February since that is the last month before the pandemic really got going and the Medicaid disenrollment freeze became effective in…

  • New Report Finds Chilling Effect, Avoidance of Health Care Services Among Immigrant Families

    Kelly Whitener

    As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the US, public health experts have emphasized the disparate impact the virus is having on certain groups – those over 65 years old (especially in congregate care settings), those with underlying health conditions, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), Black, and Latino communities. Immigrants are also disproportionately…

  • Five Steps States Can Take to Address Inequities of Health Crisis

    CCFadmin

    In May, Tekisha Dwan Everette and Karen Siegel from Health Equity Solutions released an article titled, “Five Key Questions State Health Officials Can Ask Right Now to Advance Health Equity During COVID-19 Response Efforts.” Preliminary state COVID-19 data disaggregated by race, geography and gender shows significant disparities in care and infection rates. These disparities are…

  • Oklahoma Voters Approve Constitutional Amendment to Expand Medicaid

    Adam Searing

    Oklahoma voters took a historic step and nudged their state forward toward becoming the 38th in the nation (including Washington, DC) to provide residents more affordable health insurance through their Medicaid program. The constitutional amendment passed by voters requires the state to open the doors to coverage no later than July 1, 2021. State leaders…

  • Health and Racial Disparities for Babies, Mothers Need Focused Attention, New Report Finds

    Maggie Clark

    As we’re increasingly learning, the experience of preconception, prenatal, birth, and postpartum health for moms flows directly to their infants, setting up the health status of the young family in the critical first years of life. This is why ZERO TO THREE’s State of Babies report this year calls special attention to hurdles faced by…

  • CMS Proposes Medicaid Drug Rebate Changes to Facilitate Commercial Adoption of Value-Based Purchasing Arrangements

    Edwin Park

    On June 19, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to change how drug manufacturers would report prices for purposes of the “best price” requirement under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program (MDRP), among other modifications to the rebate program and to Medicaid coverage of outpatient prescription drugs.  The intent…